Alcaraz Too Good For Medvedev, Defends Indian Wells Masters Title

Carlos Alcaraz‘s title drought is over. Today, the 20-year-old eased past Daniil Medvedev 7-6(5), 6-1 to claim his second straight Indian Wells Masters title.

“Winning this tournament means a lot to me because the week before it began, I had a lot of doubts about my ankle,” Alcaraz told the crowd. “I remember my first practice here was just 30 minutes with no movement and probably the first practice with really good tennis players was really tough for me, because I thought I was not going to play my best.

”I was not feeling well with my ankle, so a lot of doubts for me. But once I stepped on the court, the first round, I started to feel better.”

Alcaraz beat Medvedev in the final a year ago and did it again today, running away with the match dominating the second set.

Medvedev changed up court positioning and tactics, but the match-up proves elusive for the Russian as the speedy Alcaraz continues have all the answers.

“So I’m really, really happy with two weeks,” Medvedev said after another tough final loss. “Today, the first thing I asked myself in the locker room — not myself, my coach, I was like, I don’t feel I have any regrets. Do you have any regrets? He said, Yeah, we can talk about one shot here and there, but in general the match was not bad. He’s playing good.

“He managed in the first set at one moment to raise his level. I kind of managed to be there and to try to catch his level, but I was just a little bit down. In the end, this down was going down, down, down, and he was going up, up, up. So the result is, how you say, not expected but is a fair result for the match that it was.”

For Alcaraz, it was his first title since Wimbledon, his fifth at the Masters level and 13th overall of his career. He’s now 5-1 in Masters finals.

”Obviously winning tournaments helps a lot coming to to the next ones,” Alcaraz said. “Obviously winning a Masters 1000 again — it is a really difficult tournament to win — gives you extra motivation to keep going, extra confidence for Miami right now and for what’s next. For me it’s it’s amazing to lift this amazing trophy again, a really beautiful one.”

Both head to Miami as former winners, with Medvedev now playing as the defending champion.