One of the premier tennis tournaments of the calendar wrapped up on Sunday with the Indian Wells finals. In the women’s final, the 10th seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeated the second seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6, 6-4, while in the men’s final, the first seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain defeated the fifth seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-3, 6-2.
In the women’s final, Rybakina had a significantly more effective serve than Sabalenka. Rybakina had seven aces and two double faults, while Sabalenka had four aces and 10 double faults. The first set tiebreak was the most intriguing part of the match as Rybakina won 13-11.
Sabalenka was one of three seeded players that Rybakina defeated in the tournament. Rybakina also beat 2021 Indian Wells champion and the 21st seed Paula Badosa of Spain 6-3, 7-5 in the third round, and upset world number one, 2020 French Open champion, 2022 Indian Wells champion, 2022 French Open champion and 2022 United States Open champion Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinal.
Rybakina beat Sabalenka in a rematch of the Australian Open women’s final, which Sabalenka won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. This was Rybakina’s fourth career title, as she previously won Wimbledon in 2022, the 2019 Bucharest Open, and the 2020 Hobart International.
In the men’s final, Alcaraz broke Medvedev three times and won 21 more points than his opponent. Alcaraz won 59 points, while Medvedev won 38. With the win, Alcaraz returns to number one in the world, where he passes Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Medvedev was one of four seeded players Alcaraz beat at Indian Wells. He also beat 31st seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 7-6, 6-3 in the third round, the eighth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, and the 11th seed Jannik Sinner of Italy 7-6, 6-3 in the semifinals.
This was Alcaraz’s eighth career title and third title at the ATP Masters 1000 series level. The 2022 United States Open champion previously won the 2022 Miami Open and the 2022 Madrid Open.
