Carlos Alcaraz beat the Italian Jannik Sinner this Saturday after coming back from the duel with the Italian: 1-6, 6-3 and 6-2, in 2h 05m. The Spaniard, number two in the world, thus reached the final of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and secured second place on the world list thanks to a very worthy victory. Sinner did not know defeat this season – 16 consecutive victories so far – and had won the two tournaments he had played, but he came across the intelligent version of the Murcian, who rectified, avoided the melee and managed to turn the fight around to win a appointment this Sunday (10:00 p.m., Movistar) with Daniil Medvedev or Tommy Paul, mentioned below.
Alcaraz, 20 years old, therefore chooses to revalidate the title achieved last year in the Californian desert. He will do so in his sixth Masters 1000 final, the first in 2024 and the first since he played in August in Cincinnati. The Spaniard managed to reverse a match that began two and a half hours late than the scheduled time due to the rain and that also started uphill for him. Sinner attacked him fully and overwhelmed him in the first set, but midway through the second, Alcaraz began to impose his tactics: less speed, more making the opponent think. From there, he became unbalanced and gradually took over a high-value victory.
In this way, the young man from El Palmar, 20 years old, equals the head to head with his rival, 22. Both are involved in a beautiful fight that is already taking shape, with eight clashes and four victories each. The one from San Candido had won the last two events, but this time he ended up bowing to the current champion, who this Sunday will have the opportunity to capture his thirteenth trophy in the elite. Quarterfinalist this year in Australia, he then reached the semifinals in Buenos Aires and then suffered a physical mishap in Rio de Janeiro—a moderate sprain to his right ankle—which did not prevent him from offering a great performance in Indian Wells.
Now, Alcaraz has a historic goal within reach, since Roscoe Tanner (1978-79), Boris Becker (1987-88), Pete Sampras (1994-95), Michael Chang (1996-97), Lleyton Hewitt (2002-03 ), Roger Federer (2004-06) and Novak Djokovic (2014-16) were the only tennis players capable of retaining the title in the men’s category in the Coachella Valley.
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