Indian Wells (United States) (AFP) – Someone’s streak will end on Saturday when Carlos Alcaraz, unbeaten in 16 matches to start the season, faces red-hot Russian Daniil Medvedev for a place in the Indian Wells ATP Masters 1000 final. World number one Alcaraz has dominated the courts in 2026, his Australian Open triumph making the 22-year-old Spaniard the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. He followed up with a title in Doha and with four wins under his belt in the California desert owns a 16-0 record in 2026.
Medvedev is also on a roll. Ranked 11th after a patchy 2025 campaign, he has gathered steam with titles in Brisbane and Dubai this year and arrives at the semis on an eight-match winning streak of his own. The two have met before at Indian Wells, where Alcaraz beat Medvedev in the final in both 2023 and 2024. Medvedev says some tweaks that have made the notoriously slow Indian Wells hardcourts a bit faster will work in his favor, but he’s under no illusions as to the difficulty of his task.
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“I feel like the court is a bit faster since the two times I have played him, so I feel like it’s a good chance to show my best tennis against him,” Medvedev said. “But he’s the toughest opponent we have right now. Him and Jannik — maybe debatable as to who is the toughest.”
World number two Jannik Sinner, aiming to reach the Indian Wells title match for the first time, will take on fourth-ranked German Alexander Zverev. Sinner, like Medvedev, has yet to drop a set in an impressive run to the semis. The Italian says he’s ready for the heat that Zverev vows to bring — and for sizzling weekend temperatures.
“These are matches I practice for,” said Sinner, who confirmed he’d taken a look at a couple of Zverev’s matches to assess the new, aggressive style the German is pursuing. “I have to be very careful,” Sinner said. “He’s playing great tennis.”
Zverev, who came up short against Alcaraz in an epic Australian Open semi-final, has piled up more than 100 winners this week to make it past the quarter-finals for the first time. “I have struggled in Indian Wells before, but I feel different this year,” the German says.
Whatever his concerns about Zverev, Sinner — who struggled at times in the steamy heat in Melbourne — isn’t worried about playing in temperatures expected to hit the mid- to upper-30s C at the weekend. “It was very hot the week before the tournament, so we did have long training sessions trying to get the body used to it,” he said. “It’s for sure an area where I’m trying to improve given the problems I’ve had in Australia.”
© 2024 AFP
