INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner 7-6(4), 6-3 on Saturday to advance to the BNP Paribas Open final against Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev defeated Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6 (4) with his eighth match point for his 19th straight match win this year.
Alcaraz needs to win the title on Sunday to reclaim world No. 1 from Novak Djokovic. The Serb, a five-time champion at Indian Wells, withdrew before the start of the tournament after being barred from entering the United States because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Alcaraz and 11th-seeded Sinner had split their four previous encounters, with Alcaraz winning both games on hard courts.
“Jannik is a great player and he pushes me to improve and lets me play at a high level,” said Alcaraz. “I’m very happy with the level I played and the way I overcame the problem saved a set point in the first set.”
Alcaraz never faced a break point against Sinner, who hit just 48% of his first serves and 19 of 36 points on serve in set number two. In the second set he was 3-0 down.
“I didn’t serve well today, which made the biggest difference,” said Sinner. “In the baseline rallies I felt okay, I had my chances, especially in the first set. But he played the important points better than me today, so he deserved to win.”
Alacarz had 28 winners and 14 unforced errors.
Medvedev, the fifth seed, has dominated Tiafoe, winning all five of his career meetings, including 12 sets out of 13.
But the 14th-ranked American fought valiantly, saving seven match points in the second set before losing.
“If I didn’t win this match, I would probably have nightmares for a very long time. I wouldn’t sleep well tonight and a few more nights,” Medvedev told the court.
Tiafoe regularly rushed to the net to counter Medvedev’s power baseline play. He saved three break points and held serve until the 11th game of the first set. But Medvedev had a net cord forehand winner to go 6-5 ahead and then served out the set.
Tiafoe saved three match points while serving 5-3 in the second. Medvedev amassed four more match points while serving for the 6-5 lead but failed to concede until the tie break.
“That makes me even happier mentally that I still managed to win,” said Medvedev, “because try to play a tiebreak when you’ve just lost seven match points. I immediately got off to a good start and made great shots and great rallies.”
Medvedev had 30 winners and just nine unforced errors.
Medvedev’s 19-game winning streak dates back to his title run in Rotterdam in February. He then won tournaments in Doha and Dubai. Now the 2021 US Open champion and former world No. 1 is poised to add another.
Medvedev has shown resilience throughout the 12-day tournament in the Southern California desert. He overcame a badly twisted ankle and a cut thumb in two straight matches to advance to the finals.
Rohan Boponna of India and Matt Ebden of Australia defeated top seed Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neil Skupski of Great Britain 6-3 2-6 10-8 to win the men’s doubles title.
Boponna, 43, won his fifth Masters 1000 doubles title and first since 2017. He and Ebden, 35, were in their third final of the year.
Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova won the women’s doubles title with a 6:1, 6:7 (3), 10:7 against Beatriz Haddad Maia from Brazil and Laura Siegemund from Germany.
The Czech duo improved to 11-0 this year after winning the Australian Open championship in January.
The men’s and women’s doubles winners each shared a prize purse of $436,730.
Alcaraz and Medvedev clash in the Indian Wells final originally appeared on NBCSports.com
Source : sports.yahoo.com