Jannik Sinner won the title at the BNP Paribas Open tournament after defeating Daniil Medvedev in the final and thereby joined the exclusive company of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
With the victory, the Italian completed all six ATP Masters 1000 titles on the hard court.
Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner became only the third player in history to win all six ATP Masters 1000 tournaments on hard court, joining the legends.
The second seed of the tournament defeated Daniil Medvedev in the final with a score of 7-6(6), 7-6(4) and thus won his first title in Indian Wells.
Sinner finished the tournament in California without dropping a set, becoming the first player since the introduction of the Masters 1000 series in 1990 to win two consecutive Masters tournaments without dropping a set, after accomplishing the same feat in Paris last November.
The final brought a dramatic outcome. In the tie-break of the second set, Sinner was losing 0-4, but then won seven consecutive points and turned the match in his favor.
“I continued to believe and I continued to push forward. I tried to be more aggressive in my shots. If we had played the third set, everything would have been tied again, so I tried to finish the match. I am very happy with this ending,” said Sinner after the victory.
He approached Alcaraz
A perfect week in California brought Sinner his first title of the season, but also closed the gap on world number one, Carlos Alcaraz.
The Spaniard won the Australian Open and the tournament in Doha this year, but his streak without defeat was interrupted by Medvedev in the semi-finals of Indian Wells.
Sinner currently ranks second in the ATP rankings and is 2,200 points behind Alcaraz, but in the coming weeks he has the opportunity to further reduce the gap.
“It was a very, very difficult match,” said Jannik Sinner. “It’s great to see Daniil Medvedev back playing at this level. I’m very happy. I came here from the first day, I trained very hard and this result makes me very happy. To share this moment with the team and friends here is really special.”
Sinner has won titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris, and his win against Medvedev made him the first Italian to reach 100 Masters 1000 wins.
Combined with his triumphs at the Australian Open, US Open and Nitto ATP Finals, he has now completed a full set of “major titles” on hard court.
In a fast-paced opening set, Medvedev picked up where he left off against Carlos Alcaraz, hitting freely and putting Sinner under early pressure. The 30-year-old won the first six points of the match, but he failed to turn that momentum into an early break of service, after which he had to fend off pressure from the Italian at 3-3 and 4-4 on his serve.
Sinner, who took a medical timeout at 3-4 to have his right wrist re-taped, failed to capitalize on two break points during the set and was often driven from side to side by Medvedev’s clean, aggressive hitting. With very little difference between them, Sinner was the calmer player in the tie-break. The 24-year-old took the lead when Medvedev left a forehand volley at 5/4, then wrapped up the set on his second set point, after missing the first at 6/5 when he hit a forehand into the net.
The second set passed without a break of serve and went to another tie-break. Sinner then came back from 0/4 down, withstanding Medvedev’s initial onslaught, to claw his way back into the game and cruise to victory after one hour and 55 minutes.
Neither player dropped their serve during the match, and Sinner won 91 percent (43/47) of points behind his first serve.
Sinner leads Medvedev 9-7 in their ATP Tour head-to-head series, having won nine of their last 10 meetings.
Despite the defeat, Medvedev will return to the Top 10 on the ATP list on Monday.
The 30-year-old leads the Tour in terms of wins (18) in 2026, after winning trophies in Brisbane and Dubai. He leaves California second on the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin list.
“I would like to congratulate Jannik, amazing tennis, it is difficult to play against you,” Medvedev said during the trophy ceremony. “I did my best, but big congratulations to you for everything you do. Whenever you play against Carlos, I love to watch it, but I was happy that I didn’t let Carlos play against you again [ovdje].”
(Vijesti.ba)
