Daniil Medvedev lost again to Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Indian Wells tournament

In the final of the BNP Paribas Open, an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters 1000 tournament with a prize fund of $9.5 million that ended in Indian Wells, America, Carlos Alcaraz defeated the Russian Medvedev in two sets. Exactly the same result was recorded last year, although now there was more fight between them in the match. In the world rankings, the Spaniard retained second place, and the Russian remained fourth.

In the finals won by Carlos Alcaraz against Daniil Medvedev at the BNP Paribas Open a year ago and now, there is a lot in common. In any case, the result – the Spaniard’s victory in two games – is the same. But there is a clear difference between these matches. If last time in Indian Wells the Spaniard’s advantage was unconditional from beginning to end – the Russian failed to earn at least one break point during the entire game, then in this case there was serious intrigue in the first game.

Already in the second game, Medvedev took someone else’s serve and soon led – 3:0. The start of the match did not go well for Alcaraz. He made mistakes too often and, already losing, did not take advantage of three break points in the third game, although the Russian’s first serve did not go well.

If the Spaniard had continued in the same spirit, Medvedev, even with his imperfect game, would almost certainly have had enough safety margin for the final victory.

However, such a great player as Alcaraz, of course, had to improve. And in the fifth game, his signature spectacular short shot was followed by a return break.

It’s impossible to say that everything changed immediately after that. Medvedev fought, in the ninth game he fought back from someone else’s break point, after which he took the lead again with an ace – 5:4. The Spaniard attacked more often, but the Russian, with the help of his tenacity, still forced his opponent to make mistakes. And although most of the most beautiful plays were left to Alcaraz, it came to a tiebreaker, during which both tennis players regularly started plays only with the second ball. In the tiebreaker, the Spaniard led 3:0 and 5:2, the Russian caught up with him, but on the first set point his opponent hit into touch with a forehand shot.

Subsequent events proved the consistency of such an ending to the first game. Feeling a psychological advantage, Alcaraz also caught the optimal point of impact when receiving, demonstrated an excellent forehand over and over again and retrieved heavy balls, going on a counter-offensive after other people’s attacks.

Overall, Medvedev had a successful tournament for himself. But the fact that in the second set he was able to take only one game is not surprising.

After all, the first game of the tough semi-final against the American Tommy Paul turned out just as unsuccessfully for the Russian, which he managed to pull out in a difficult fight.

As a result – 7:6 (7:5), 6:1 in 1 hour 42 minutes. Having interrupted the unbeaten streak of Italian Jannik Sinner, which consisted of 19 matches, on Saturday, Alcaraz dealt with another representative of the top 4 the next day. But two and a half weeks ago the Spaniard was not in the best condition. He arrived at Indian Wells feeling the effects of an ankle injury suffered in mid-February in Rio de Janeiro, and, in his own words, could not train at full capacity.

Be that as it may, the result of the BNP Paribas Open will certainly in the near future affect the course of the struggle for first place in the ranking. After Novak Djokovic’s early setback, Alcaraz stopped two other direct competitors on a very comfortable slow hard court and broke a streak of ten tournaments without a title, which began eight months ago after his triumph at Wimbledon. A similar series of Medvedev, who took his 20th (and last so far) title in May at the clay Italian Open in Rome, lasts much longer – already ten months and consists of fifteen competitions. He lost in five finals: three times, in Beijing, Vienna and the Australian Open, to Jannik Sinner, once each to Djokovic at the US Open, and now to Alcaraz.

From Indian Wells, the rivals in the Californian final flew to Florida, where the second March American Masters 1000 tournament, the Miami Open presented by Itau, begins on Wednesday. Medvedev will have to defend last year’s title there, but he will retain his current fourth place in the ranking regardless of the result. The leader of the ATP classification, Novak Djokovic, will also remain the same. The gigantic gap he created at the end of last season over the group of younger pursuers is gradually shrinking. However, until at least April 15, the Serbian will remain unattainable for both Sinner, who lost to Medvedev in the Miami final 12 months ago, and last year’s semi-finalist Alcaraz.

Evgeniy Fedyakov