Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain thrashed fifth seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-3 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Sunday. It was the 19-year-old Spaniard’s third Masters 1000 title and his performance has sparked off fresh debates as to whether he is the greatest teenager to ever have played the game. He also reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking with the victory and actually won the title without dropping a set.
On the other hand, it was a disappointing performance from the 27-year-old Russian, who failed to have a single break point opportunity in the match. On that note, we will take a look at how the match went on:
Carlos Alcaraz did not allow Medvedev to settle into a rhythm:
Alcaraz did not allow his opponent to feel comfortable during most of the rallies. As soon as the Russian tried to get into prolonged crosscourt backhand exchanges, Alcaraz disrupted his rhythm by going down-the-line with his backhand or playing slices.
That pattern continued throughout the match and never really allowed the Russian to dominate the proceedings. Alcaraz thus got the crucial break in the first set and never lost his serve to draw the first blood.
Alcaraz showed his versatility by playing drop shots and volleys extensively:
Carlos Alcaraz–as he has done throughout the tournament–demonstrated how versatile a player he was by playing a plethora of drop shots and also winning a lot of points through volleys. The Spaniard also opted for serve and volley on a few occasions and exhibited his wonderful volleying skills.
He broke Medvedev to love in the second game of the second set, as the latter committed a double fault on break point. Alcaraz then hit a couple of venomous returns in the fourth game to break Medvedev again.
The Russian never recovered from that blow and Alcaraz managed to serve out the match comfortably. Medvedev started getting the measure of the Spaniard’s drop shots towards the latter part of the match, but by then the damage was already done.
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
