Back-to-back: Carlos Alcaraz repeats as BNP Paribas Open champion with win over Daniil Medvedev
Carlos Alcaraz hadn’t won a tournament since last summer at Wimbledon when he emphatically said last week that he came to Indian Wells to defend his title. Anything less would be unacceptable.
The task seemed like a difficult one, with top-ranked Novak Djokovic back at the BNP Paribas Open for the first time in five years and with Jannik Sinner on a historical run to start the 2024 season.
But on Sunday, following a 7-6(5), 6-1 rematch win over Daniil Medvedev, it was Alcaraz who lifted the Baccarat trophy on Stadium Court at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
"It means a lot to me, lifting this trophy, winning this tournament," Alcaraz said, "because I overcame a lot of problems in my head, a lot of problems physically. It was so special for that."
Last year, with a win over Medvedev in the final, the 20-year-old Spanish tennis star became the youngest man to win this event since the ATP Tour began, in 1990. He's now the youngest to win back-to-back titles here, and joins Djokovic, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Lleyton Hewitt as the only back-to-back winners at Indian Wells during that 34-year span.
Alcaraz now joins countryman Rafael Nadal as the only players to win five ATP Masters 1000 titles before their 21st birthday. Alcaraz turns 21 on May 5.
For his work over the last week, Alcaraz earned $1,100,000. Medvedev will receive $585,000 as the tournament’s runner-up.
The win came after a bumpy start to the season. Alcaraz lost in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, the semifinals in Buenos Aires and was forced to withdraw from his first match in Rio de Janeiro. He entered Indian Wells with a rather modest 6-3 record and no wins over players in the top 25.
"It's difficult to put it into words, because I had really difficult months," Alcaraz said. "The last two months it was difficult for me to find myself. I didn't enjoy stepping on the court. I wasn't myself on the court the last two months."
Nothing could stop Alcaraz this week. Not the swarm of bees that chased him off the court on Thursday; not the three-hour rain delay that paused his match on Saturday; not the third-ranked Sinner, who had been on a historical unbeaten streak to the start the year; and not the fourth-ranked Medvedev, who went up a break to start the match.
With actors Zendaya, Tom Holland and Charlize Theron on hand to take in the action, along with pro golfer Michelle Wie, Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova and tennis icon Rod Laver, Alcaraz got back on serve in the seventh game of the first set.
He then held serve to take the set to 4-4. In the ninth game, Alcaraz extended a rally with his nimble feet that ignited a roar from the crowd and caused television commentators to momentarily lose their minds. Video of the moment immediately spread like wildfire on social media.
"I mean, I was about to jump and smash it," Alcaraz said. "Yeah, something happened to my feet that I couldn't jump. When something like that happens, you have to put one more ball in and just run to the next one. That's what I did. I put it in, it was a pretty good lob that Medvedev couldn't smash it in a good position."
In the tiebreak, after going up 3-0, Medvedev couldn’t manage to put Alcaraz away. The Spaniard scored three consecutive points to tie the score, and with the score tied 5-5, Alcaraz kept a pair of rallies alive to win the points and take the first set.
"He managed in the first set at one moment to raise his level," Medvedev said. "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."
Alcaraz held serve in the first game of the second set, then went up a break and held serve again to take a 3-0 advantage in the set. He then went up a double break and held serve the rest of the way to end the match.
For the match, Alcaraz recorded 23 winners to Medvedev's 11, and won 75% of the points on his first serve, compared to 63% for Medvedev.
"It's a tough place to play tennis," Medvedev said. "Balls flying a little bit, the serve doesn't count as much for me, and when the serve doesn't count as much, I usually don't play very well."
Medvedev added that after the loss, in the locker room, he asked his coach, Gilles Cervara, if he had any regrets about the match. They agreed that they didn't.
"He said, 'Yeah, we can talk about one shot here and there, but in general the match was not bad,'" Medvedev said. "(Alcaraz) was playing good."
The match capped the end of the two-week tournament, which included a record attendance of 493,440. Polish tennis star Iga Świątek, the top-ranked women's player in the world, won the women's BNP Paribas Open earlier on Sunday.
Then, in the men's final, Alcaraz finished what he set out to do when the tournament began.
In doing so, he may have turned his season around, and rediscovered his confidence and his place in the sport.
"That's why I'm really, really happy to lift this trophy," Alcaraz said. "Because I found myself at this tournament, and I felt really, really good."
Andrew John covers sports for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Carlos Alcaraz repeats as Indian Wells champion with win over Daniil Medvedev
