IG news Update,
Indian Wells, California –
Carlos Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner 7-6(4), 6-3 on Saturday to reach the final of the BNP Paribas Open against Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev registered his 19th consecutive win of the year on his eighth match point, defeating Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Alcaraz needs to win the title on Sunday to reclaim the world No. 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic. The Serb, a five-time champion at Indian Wells, withdrew from the tournament before it began after he was not allowed to enter the US as he is unimmunized against COVID-19.
Alcaraz and Sinner had split their last four meetings, with Alcaraz winning both matches on hard courts.
Fifth seed Medvedev has continued to dominate Tiafoe, winning all five of their career meetings including 12 out of 13 sets in the process.
But the 14th seeded American fought back brilliantly to save seven match points in the second set before going down.
Medvedev said on the court, “If I don’t win this match, I think I’m going to have nightmares for a very long time. I won’t be able to sleep well tonight and a few more nights.”
Tiafoe regularly charged the net to counter Medvedev’s power baseline game. He saved three break points and held serve till the 11th game of the first set. But Medvedev had a net-cord forehand winner to go up 6–5 and then served for the set.
Tiafoe saved three match points in the second while trailing 5–3. Medvedev collected four more match points while serving for the match leading 6-5, but could not convert until the tiebreaker.
“It makes me even happier mentally that I still managed to win,” Medvedev said, “because try playing a tiebreak when you’ve only lost seven match points.”
Medvedev had 30 winners and only nine unforced errors.
Medvedev’s 19-match winning streak carried over to his title campaign in Rotterdam in February. He then won tournaments in Doha and Dubai. Now, the 2021 US Open champion and former world No. 1 is in a position to add one more.
Medvedev has proved resilient during the 12-day tournament in the Southern California desert. He overcame a badly sprained ankle and a cut thumb in two straight matches to enter the finals.
Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova won the women’s doubles title by defeating Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia and Germany’s Laura Siegmund 6-1, 6-7(3), 10-7.
The Czech pair improved to 11-0 this year after winning the Australian Open championship in January. They split US$436,730 in prize money.