The Indian Wells final pitted Daniil Medvedev, the player with the best recent form on the circuit after winning 3 consecutive titles and 19 straight matches, against Carlos Alcaraz, who was seeking to win his third Master 1000 title and return to the top of the ATP rankings, surpassing Serbian Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz overcame a tough semi-final against Jannik Sinner in two sets, despite being inferior to the Italian in the first set. Meanwhile, the Russian dominated Frances Tiafoe with his serve in the semi-final, but had difficulties in closing out the match despite his great level displayed.
In the first set, Medvedev started off erratically and conceded his first service game, giving the advantage to the Spanish player. From 3-0 onwards, the Russian managed to get into the game, but it was not enough to generate any break points and the 19-year-old player closed it out with a 6-3 scoreline.
In the second set, the Spanish player once again took the lead early on and got a break without Medvedev converting any points. From there, Alcaraz took advantage of his opponent's frustration and, by defending his own serve, took a second break that put him 4-0 ahead. Unfortunately for the Russian, the young star showed no weaknesses in his serve and maintained the lead until the end of the match without conceding any break points to his opponent.
With this victory, Alcaraz surpasses Novak Djokovic by 260 points and reclaims the world No. 1 ranking just before playing the Miami Open, where he defends the 2022 trophy.