It is finals day at the 2024
Indian Wells Open as
Carlos Alcaraz and
Daniil Medvedev which was a familiar sight as it was last season's championship match set for another duel in Tennis Paradise with the title on the line. Second to the women's final which sees Iga Swiatek face Maria Sakkari, will it be repeat or revenge?
Our
preview looks ahead to Alcaraz v Medvedev including their routes to the final, key talking points, Head to Head and also a prediction.
Marvellous Medvedev's revenge mission
It was one of two missions for Daniil Medvedev depending on the result of the first rain delayed semi-final as it could've been either Jannik Sinner who he lost to in the final of the 2024 Australian Open in a heartbreak loss from two sets up or Alcaraz who he lost to in last year's final. So either way, it was certainly revenge on the brain.
The fourth seed has only been taken the distance twice during this tournament when he faced Sebastian Korda in the second round and when he took on Tommy Paul in the semi-finals. In between he saw off Holger Rune, Grigor Dimitrov and Roberto Carballes Baena without too much fuss. Albeit against Paul, the American romped the opening set and seemed to struggle with injury from there as his golden chance of a maiden ATP 1000 final seemed to fall by the wayside at the opportune moment.
So far this season, he is 14-2 with his only losses coming against two of the leaders in the ATP so far this season in Ugo Humbert who has won two titles and the imperious Jannik Sinner who up to losing to Alcaraz was 19-0 back to November last year. As a result despite the loss to Sinner in Melbourne, this final is very much fitting with his current form line. If he won it would be a 21st ATP Tour singles title and a seventh on the ATP 1000 circuit and would continue his streak of winning one in different tournaments each time.
Awesome Alcaraz ends Sinner's streak
Carlos Alcaraz has done it the hard way during this tournament coming from a set down to defeat Matteo Arnaldi and facing many a nemesis in terms of previous results en route. Sort of like Medvedev's revenge mission, he has defeated Fabian Marozsan who defeated him in Rome last year, Alexander Zverev who accounted for him in Melbourne in January and also Jannik Sinner who like alluded to was 19-0 and 16-0 this year.
Alcaraz has had a lot of doubt cast onto himself before this tournament. He played the South American swing with minimal results and an injury in tournaments which due to his status he is expected to win. He has not won a title since Wimbledon last year and up to this week where he has shown that he is back, he has not looked like the same player.
But this week, he has been exceptional and showed that with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Jannik Sinner which ended the Italian's streak and made him the favourite to seal back-to-back Indian Wells titles. In a world where Carlitos has to keep pace with Novak Djokovic who himself hardly plays, he will keep up his momentum by retaining his ranking points in winning on Sunday. It also sends out a statement that he is still up there amid all the recent clamour about Jannik Sinner.
Head to Head wise, it is 3-2 to Alcaraz. Their last meeting saw Alcaraz win a Round Robin at the ATP Finals. But their last significant meetings came at Grand Slams with Alcaraz winning at Wimbledon and Medvedev the US Open. So this is very much a hard to call clash between two of the world's best.
Prediction: Carlos Alcaraz in three sets
