Carlos Alcaraz becomes the first male player since Novak Djokovic to successfully defend his title at Indian Wells.
Spanish tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz retains the championship at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, located in the California desert, USA.
Just after midnight on Monday, the 20-year-old Spaniard once again defeated Daniil Medvedev, who for the second consecutive year came up short in the final of this prestigious tournament.
Carlos Alcaraz overpowered the Russian with scores of 7-6, 6-1.
“I enjoy playing these kinds of matches with you,” Alcaraz said during the trophy presentation. “Hopefully, we’ll have more finals to look forward to.”
The Spaniard started off sloppily with unprovoked errors, and it seemed like routine when Medvedev took a 3-0 lead in the first set.
However, the defending champion found his form, managed to break back, and dragged the 1 hour and 11 minutes long set into a tiebreak, which he won.
In the second set, the Russian only managed to hold serve once, allowing Carlos Alcaraz to easily close the set 6-1 and thus the match.
Indian Wells is one of the biggest tournaments in the annual tennis calendar and ranks just below the four Grand Slam tournaments in prestige.
Both the women’s and men’s sides compete for a total of nine million dollars in prize money, equivalent to 61.6 million Danish kroner, of which about 7.53 million kroner goes to the tournament’s winner.
