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It has been a while since Carlos Alcaraz has won a tournament. The last one was at Wimbledon to be exact. That has all changed as the 20-year-old has now won back-to-back titles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. It marks the third time in his career that he has successfully defended a title.
For the second consecutive year he has defeated Daniil Medvedev in the final, this time it took one hour 42 minutes, and the score was 7-6, 6-1 which was certainly closer than twelve months before.
"Well, it's great. It's never easy. I think it's even more difficult if it's a Masters 1000," Alcaraz said. "I'm really happy to show really good tennis this tournament. It's a really special place for me. Yeah, really happy to be able to defend the title here in Indian Wells.
"It's difficult to put it into words, because I had really difficult months. Let's say the last two months it was difficult for me to find myself. I didn't enjoy, let's say, stepping on the court. I wasn't myself on the court the last two months, let's say, two months, three months, so it was difficult for me.
"Even more difficult after that was (indiscernible), which is my uncle, so has been really difficult weeks after that.
"Yeah, it means a lot to me, lifting this trophy, winning this tournament, because I overcome a lot of problems in my head, a lot of problems physically. It was so special for that. Not that I didn't win a tournament since Wimbledon.
"For me, it doesn't matter. It's about the feelings, as I said. For me, if I win tournaments or not, I don't care. It's about enjoying playing tennis, once I step on the court, putting my game. It's what only matters.
"That's why I'm really, really happy to lift this trophy, because I found myself at this tournament, and I felt really, really good."
Medvedev started very well. He scored an early service break and opened up a 3-0 lead but when he dropped serve in the fifth game of the first set Alcaraz was given his opening and chance, and he took it. The crowd found its voice at that stage and Alcaraz was getting on a roll. Some of the points played by both men was quite extraordinary.
Medvedev had finished his semifinal against Tommy Paul later than expected because rain had messed up the schedule. He had played a tight three setter. Earlier in the day the rain has caused a three-hour interruption to the semi between Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner which is why Medvedev finished later. The Alcaraz-Sinner match was stunning to watch as Carlos came back from 1-6 to win 6-3, 6-2.
Still Medvedev did not appear to be affected by his later finish the night before, it was just that Alcaraz found his sweet spot.
"It's a tough place to play tennis, balls flying a little bit, the serve doesn't count as much and me, when the serve doesn't count as much, I usually don't play very well," Medvedev said. "So I'm really, really happy with two weeks. 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.
"But I'm happy. Last time I managed to do it I won Miami, so that's what I'm going to try to do. And starting from the second set he managed to play better and better, more passing shots. I don't feel like I did something too wrong.
So, in my opinion, it was just that he managed to raise even more his level, and I got just a bit tired physically and mentally, and he managed to take advantage of it and that's why it was 6-1. I hope it was just this. But you never know. A tennis match is many small pieces. So maybe I did lose some belief after the first set, but I hope the next time I lose 7-6 I'm going to try to do better."
The doubles title went to Nikola Mektic and Wesley Koolhof, they defeated Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 7-6, 7-6.
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