Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev to face off in Indian Wells final – Orange County Register
INDIAN WELLS — Carlos Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner 7-6(4), 6-3 on Saturday to advance to the BNP Paribas Open final against Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev beat Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6(4) on his eighth match point for his 19th straight win of the year.
Alcaraz must win the title on Sunday to retake the world No. 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic. The Serbian, five-time champion at Indian Wells, withdrew before the start of the tournament after he was not allowed to enter the United States because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Alcaraz and 11th-seeded Sinner had split their previous four encounters, with Alcaraz winning both matches on hard courts.
“Jannik is a great player, and he pushes me to improve and plays at a high level,” Alcaraz said. “I’m really happy with the level I played and how I overcame the problem, I saved a set point in the first set.”
Alcaraz never faced a break point against Sinner, who made just 48% of his first serves and 19 of 36 points on serve in the second set. He trailed 3-0 in the second set.
“I didn’t serve well today, which made the biggest difference,” Sinner said. “The baseline rallies, I felt good, I had my chances, especially the first set. But he played the important points better than me today, so he deserved to win.
Alacarz had 28 winners and 14 unforced errors.
Medvedev, the fifth seed, has dominated Tiafoe, winning all five encounters of his career, including 12 from 13 sets in the process.
But the 14th-seeded American fought valiantly, saving seven match points in the second set before succumbing.
“If I didn’t win this match, I think I would have nightmares for a very long time. I would not sleep well tonight and a few more nights,” Medvedev said in court.
Tiafoe steadily charged the net to counter Medvedev’s power base play. He saved three break points and remained on duty until the 11th game of the first set. But Medvedev had a clean forehand winner to go up 6-5 and then served the set.
Tiafoe saved three match points while serving 5-3 in the second. Medvedev racked up four more match points while serving for the game leading 6-5, but couldn’t cash before the tiebreaker.
“It makes me even happier mentally that I still managed to win,” Medvedev said, “because trying to play a tie-break when you just lost seven match points. in a row by making superb shots and superb rallies.
Medvedev had 30 winners and just nine unforced errors.
Medvedev’s 19-game winning streak dates back to his title run in Rotterdam in February. He then won tournaments in Doha and Dubai. Now the 2021 US Open champion and former world No. 1 is able to add another.
Medvedev showed resilience during the 12-day tournament in the Southern California desert. He overcame a badly twisted ankle and a severed thumb in two straight games to advance to the final.
Rohan Boponna of India and Matt Ebden of Australia beat top seeds Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neil Skupski of England 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 to win the men’s doubles title.
Boponna, 43, won his fifth Masters 1000 doubles title and first since 2017. He and Ebden, 35, were in their third final of the year.
Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova captured the women’s doubles title with a 6-1, 6-7(3), 10-7 win over Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Laura Siegemund of Germany.
The Czech duo improved to 11-0 this year, having won the Australian Open championship in January.
The men’s and women’s doubles winners each shared $436,730 in prize money.
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