Athletistic / Tennis. Last night, all the attention of Russian sports fans was focused on Indian Wells. In this small Californian town, the last match of the Masters Series tournament began at midnight, during which the Russian Daniil Medvedev faced the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. Tennis fans may have had a feeling of déjà vu: a year ago, these were the players who reached the final in Indian Wells. Then Alcaraz turned out to be stronger in all respects (6:3, 6:2), and therefore it was the Spaniard who was considered the favorite for the upcoming match.

In the semifinals, Medvedev and Alcaraz won deliberate and very difficult victories. Danya managed to pull himself together in the match against American Tommy Paul and defeated him in three sets with a score of 1:6, 7:6 (7-3), 6:2. The fight took place in a very similar scenario in the semi-final with the participation of Alcaraz, where Carlos managed to inflict his first defeat in 2024 on the Italian Jannik Sinner (1:6, 6:3, 6: 2).

  • Medvedev brought down Alcaraz’s crown. The Spaniard was discouraged and didn’t know what to do

The history of the confrontation between Alcaraz and Medvedev included 5 matches until yesterday: the Spaniard won three times and the Russian celebrated success twice. For Medvedev, the final in Indian Wells was his second of the season. In the first, he lost to Sinner in the Australian Open final, taking a 2–0 lead in sets. It is interesting that before the current Masters, Daniil reached decisive matches in ATP Tour tournaments 37 times: 20 victories and 17 defeats. However, in the last four finals, the Russian invariably lost. He was weaker than Novak Djokovic at the US Open and also lost three times to Jannik Sinner.

Photo source: Australian Open

Due to his age, Alcaraz has played far fewer finals so far, but he already has four Masters victories (compared to six for Medvedev), and has also won two Grand Slam tournaments (the Russian has only won ‘only once the TBS so far). ).

Medvedev started the final match significantly better. In the opening match, he took his serve flawlessly, then immediately broke. Already in the next match, the Spaniard could have made a reverse break three times, but Danya still managed to pull himself together and bring the score to 3:0. However, everything changed – the next three games were left to Alcaraz, who quickly equalized the score. Then, in the first set, the tennis players only took their serves.

In the ninth game, the Russian played a hidden set point, managing to take his serve. As a result, there was a tie-break, in which Carlos made a mini-break in the first draw. As a result, in a fierce struggle, Alcaraz won the first set 7:6 (7-5) and took the lead in the match.

If the first set lasted 1 hour 11 minutes, the second match was just a pitiful imitation. It was all over in 31 minutes. Carlos imitated the first game and led with a score of 3:0. Then, Danya managed to break the score by taking her serve. However, with the score at 1:4 in the second set, the Russian missed several shots on his serve and gave the game to his opponent. Alcaraz, serving for the match, converted the first match point and for the second year in a row became the winner of the tournament in Indian Wells – 7:6 (7-5), 6:1.

Photo source: ATP

As a result, Alcaraz defended his 1,000 ranking points acquired last year, while Medvedev retained his 650 points. Note that the victory in Indian Wells enriched the Spaniard by 1.1 million dollars, while the Russian will receive 650,000 dollars for his participation in the Masters final.

Daniil Medvedev lost his fifth consecutive final. The Russian, after an extremely successful spring of 2023, where he managed to win two Masters, still cannot take the last step towards the trophy. However, one of his favorite tournaments now awaits him: the Miami Masters. Danya is the current winner of the tournament. Let’s hope that history repeats itself here and the Russians can achieve a long-awaited victory.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic



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