In Alcaraz, Medvedev faced an opponent with so many options at his disposal that it barely mattered what he did. When he tried to stay with the Spaniard from the baseline, he was either out-rallied or simply blown away by the 19-year-old’s weight of shot. When he tried to hit through the slow conditions himself, he too often strayed into error, his flatter strokes affording him little margin in the swirling desert wind. 

On the rare occasions he ventured to the net, Medvedev was passed with almost contemptuous ease. Conversely, when Alcaraz went forward, the Russian was rarely able to find a way past an opponent equipped with lightning reflexes and, it seemed, a volley for every occasion, either punched or caressed as the situation demanded. Alcaraz’s signature drop shots, exquisitely executed in the unrelenting breeze, posed a constant threat as Medvedev went about his business from his favoured position deep behind the baseline.

Never mind Plan B, Alcaraz ran the full gamut of plans from A-Z. It was a masterful compilation of work, even by Alcaraz’s stratospheric standards. The pièce de resistance came late in the second set, when the Spaniard conjured three consecutive drop-shot winners. On each occasion, Medvedev, one of the game’s most dogged and resourceful retrievers, barely moved a muscle. Phenomenal.

Medvedev began the contest infused with all the certainty of a man on a 19-match winning streak; by the end, he was barely able to comprehend what had just happened, let alone why.

“Why didn’t I play my best? I don’t know,” reflected Medvedev. “Maybe it was his ball. Maybe it was the wind – it was pretty windy today, and for him it was easier to go through this wind, and that’s normal. That’s what’s easier to do for him. So I have no real reasons, and sometimes in tennis you don’t have them.”

Fittingly, after a performance of such magnitude and maturity, Alcaraz earned not only a third Masters 1000 title – only his compatriot Rafael Nadal, with six, has won more as a teenager – but also a return to the top of the rankings. Dislodged as No 1 by Novak Djokovic after a hamstring injury left him unable to compete at the Australian Open, Alcaraz will cede it to the 22-time grand slam champion again should he fail to defend the 1,000 points he earned for last season’s victory at the Miami Open, where he will open his campaign on Friday. A fascinating tug-of-war lies in prospect.

“It feels great to be back [at] No 1,” said Alcaraz following his rapid-fire win in an hour and 10 minutes. “Of course, every player on the ATP [Tour] wants to be No 1, and for me it’s a dream come true again. Being in front of such great players like Novak, like the top players, for me, it’s an amazing feeling.

“Novak is one of the best players in the world. That’s obvious. You know, I will say that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. I really wanted to play against Novak again. We miss him on tour, and hope to have him back very, very soon. It would be amazing to play against him again.”

While not exactly a cloud on Alcaraz’s horizon, the absence of Djokovic, who remains unable to enter the United States because of his decision not to take a Covid vaccine, remains a talking point. The Serb was also missing when Alcaraz lifted the US Open title last September, precipitating his rise to No 1, and the pair have played just once so far, Alcaraz prevailing in three sets in the semi-finals of last year’s Madrid Open. Yet you can only beat the players in front of you and Medvedev, a former US Open champion and world No 1 himself, roundly rejected the notion that his younger rival’s status lacked legitimacy without Djokovic in the field. 

“For sure if he would be able to play last year and this year all the tournaments, there is a possibility that the rankings would be different,” said Medvedev. “But there should be no ‘buts’. Carlos is deservedly world No 1. He won more points than everybody else in last 52 weeks, and that’s how rankings work.”

Alcaraz certainly won plenty of points against Medvedev, dominating the scoreboard throughout and converting each of his three opportunities to break. In a match Medvedev never led – he lost 12 of the first 15 points in the opening set, and 10 in a row at the start of the second – did he do enough to change the direction of travel? 

“It was not easy, because I tried, for sure,” said Medvedev. “That’s what I try to do all the time if something is not working, but he was kind of cutting the rhythm well. 

“When I say ‘cutting the rhythm’, you know, when the guy serves 130[mph] on the “T” and you don’t return it, [there’s] not much you can change. Then, I don’t know, the moment I started feeling like maybe I was getting a little bit better in the rally and missing less – I was missing a lot for whatever reason – he did this game where he did three dropshots in a row.”

Even Medvedev’s serve, the cornerstone of his game, offered scant refuge, the 27-year-old landing only 65% of his first serves – about 10% lower than his average – and winning just 41% of the points behind the second ball. The contrast with Alcaraz, who tempered the pace of his delivery early on in deference to the blowy conditions, and did not face a break point throughout, was pronounced. 

“I have no doubts about my shots,” said Alcaraz. “I feel really comfortable on court. I really trust in every shot that I hit. That’s why I’m playing a great level, because if I miss, I don’t mind.”

As Medvedev discovered – along with Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime and everyone else Alcaraz faced at an event where he did not drop a set – it is hard to legislate for such certainty. Sometimes, even the best-laid tactical plans are not enough. 

The post Alcaraz mauls Medvedev in Indian Wells to regain No 1 ranking appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Elena Rybakina laid a few of hers to rest, avenging her Australian Open final defeat to Aryna Sabalenka with a 7-6 (13-11), 6-4 victory that marked her first success in five meetings with the Belarusian. 

The Kazakh’s first WTA 1000 title – and first tournament win of any kind since last summer’s Wimbledon triumph – elevates her to a career-high ranking of seventh, a boost she was denied after her victory at the All England Club as a result of the WTA’s decision to strip the event of points. For Rybakina, points were made on and off the court.  

But on a windswept afternoon in the California desert, Sabalenka’s monsters resurfaced. Ten double faults played a decisive role in the 24-year-old’s second defeat of the season, most damagingly when she held a set point in a seesaw first-set tiebreak. 

It was the bitterest of blows for Sabalenka, who seemed to have put her serving woes behind her when she won her first grand slam title in Melbourne two months ago, and her dismay was evident as she struggled to retain her composure at the start of the second set, the opening points of which she barely contested. The assumption after Australia was that the self-proclaimed Queen of Double Faults had abdicated; now, the possibility of an interregnum must be entertained.

In fairness to Sabalenka, her difficulties were not solely of her own making. Rybakina, whose quartet of previous defeats had all come in deciding sets, had spoken beforehand of the need to serve better at the decisive moments against a player whose own thunderclap delivery bears comparison with her own. The 23-year-old made good on that ambition, particularly behind her second serve, where her 52% success rate represented a significant improvement on the 44% she managed in Melbourne. Her willingness to risk more on the second ball made it harder for Sabalenka to exert the kind of pressure that had reaped dividends in the past.

“The first serve was not working that well, how I wanted,” said Rybakina. “But on the second serve, I just tried to push more, because I remember since Australia she was putting a lot of pressure on the second serve. So this is something for me to improve. 

“I think here, since the conditions a bit slower, it was kind of easier to play the next shot. I tried to also change the second serve.

“Compared [to the] match in Australia, it was different, especially this first set, because she did a couple of double faults, which gave me an advantage. But then I didn’t take this opportunity from the first times.”

The power and quality of the ball-striking from both women was frequently exquisite in the early stages. Sabalenka pushed hard from the outset, fashioning a break point in the opening game that Rybakina saved with a signature move, a penetrating crosscourt backhand proving too hot for the Belarusian to handle. The same play had earned her numerous points in her semi-final win over Iga Swiatek, but here it was Rybakina’s forehand that did the greater damage. The tone was set when she glided to her right to smoke a huge winner down the line, a move she repeated to stunning effect with several early service returns. Sabalenka delivered similar hammer blows with her backhand, launching herself at the ball with gleeful relish, and it was one such effort that completed a difficult hold in the fourth game, where she was forced to fend off three break points.

There were signs in that game of the difficulties to come for the world No 2, who delivered two consecutive double faults, including a 105mph second serve. Sabalenka’s ability to cancel out such setbacks by immediately landing big serves has been a defining feature of her improvement over the past six months, and she once again showed the courage of her convictions, blasting her way out of trouble. Some clever changes of pace then propelled her to a break, but she relinquished the advantage in disastrous fashion a couple of games later, another pair of double faults allowing Rybakina to draw level at 4-4. 

Now Sabalenka’s troubles began in earnest. A double fault at 5-6 brought up a set point for Rybakina, who spurned the opportunity with a missed return. Three more doubles would follow in the tiebreak, the first costing Sabalenka a set point, the next two gifting Rybakina the opportunity to take the lead. The resulting tension proved contagious, the normally calm Rybakina producing a double-fault of her own on her third set point and later bouncing her racket into the court in frustration after missing a backhand to bring up a second set point for Sabalenka. The Belarusian could barely believe it when she subsequently sent a backhand long. 

It was ragged, nerve-riddled stuff, a far cry from the high standard of the first few games. Rybakina eventually converted her sixth set point, Sabalenka sending a wayward forehand sailing beyond the baseline. With so much riding on the opener, it was always likely to have a disproportionate influence on the final outcome, and so it proved. Having returned from a bathroom break in visible distress, there was to be no way back for Sabalenka after she dropped her opening service game to love.

“There will be some days when old habits will come back and you just have to work through it,” reflected Sabalenka afterwards. “Not every match will be going your way, and you will be serving perfectly. So it’s just kind of a reminder that that’s OK, to still struggle with something. That’s okay, to not play your best [but] keep fighting and keep using the rest of the weapons.

“Today I would say that I was super disappointed with my serve, so I was back to old habits. I was a little bit overreacting on things, and I wasn’t there in the first two games in the second set.”

There was a lovely moment during the trophy presentation when Rybakina, reflecting on “a great result”, acknowledged that it was “the first time it went my way”, expressing hope she would face Sabalenka in “many more finals”. “I’ll make sure it was the last one,” Sabalenka interjected. “No. No, no, no, we’ll see next time,” smiled Rybakina as Sabalenka patted her playfully on the shoulder.The reality is that, for all Swiatek’s success over the Middle Eastern swing, the pair have now contested the two biggest finals of the season. With Rybakina going from strength to strength, the women’s season promises to be a three-way shootout for the big trophies – demons allowing.

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As with so many sequels, however, Alcaraz’s 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory was something of an anti-climax. The spellbinding level on display at Flushing Meadows was only sporadically evident, and there were rarely passages where both men produced their best at the same time. A combined total of 55 unforced errors tells it own story. Neither was the scoreboard drama of the same order. 

There was one common denominator, however, and that lay in Alcaraz’s courage when crisis came calling. In New York, that moment arrived late in the fourth set, when the Spaniard saved a match point. Here it came at 6-5 in the opener, as he fought off a set point against his serve by closing down the net behind an audacious drop shot to stab away a volley. Alcaraz, who stumbled into error towards the end of a set he had led 4-2, was at his most vulnerable in that game, but held his nerve to force a tiebreak, where he did what Sinner had been unable to do by punishing some untimely mistakes from his rival.

“Against Jannik, it’s never easy,” said Alcaraz, who has now won three of his five meetings with Sinner. “I had to overcome problems, I saved one set point and I knew that I had to increase my level. 

“It was a really close first set, but in the second set, let’s say I pulled out of the nerves and played a little more relaxed. It was the key [to] everything.”

Central to that improvement was Alcaraz’s ability to make an early break stick, something he was unable to achieve after a pair of Sinner double faults handed him the initiative in the fifth game of the match. On that occasion, the 19-year-old gifted the advantage back amid a flurry of mistakes. This time, having backed up a sizzling forehand pass with a pair of forceful returns to claim a 2-0 lead, Alcaraz consolidated his hold on the contest with some trademark wizardry, flicking an outrageous topspin lob over the stranded Sinner after the Italian had turned defence into attack with a perfectly measured lob of his own. Raise your glass, as the American singer Pink, a lively presence in the stands, would say.

Serving for a place in his first Indian Wells final, Alcaraz crashed down a 137mph ace and followed up with three monstrous forehands to move within one victory of reclaiming the number one ranking from Novak Djokovic. 

Awaiting the teenager will be Daniil Medvedev, the fifth seed, who earlier extended his winning streak to 19 matches with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory over Frances Tiafoe. Medvedev, seeking a fourth title in a row following his successes in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai, led by a set and 5-3 and held three match points on Tiafoe’s serve before the American launched an unlikely comeback, forcing a tiebreak after saving seven match points. 

“It was a crazy match,” said Medvedev. “I mean, the ending, tough.

“Always better to finish on your first match point and not on the eighth. But that’s what makes tennis also a fun sport, and I’m just really happy that I managed not to lose this match and not to have regrets, nightmares, whatever.”

Medvedev won their only previous meeting, at Wimbledon in 2021, in straight sets. But Alcaraz was just beginning his professional journey at the time, while the Russian was No 2 in the world and only weeks away from claiming a maiden grand slam title at the US Open. As Medvedev acknowledged, it is not a result that will have any bearing on the outcome of Sunday’s final.

“I would say our [previous] match, for sure it counts in head to head,” said Medvedev. “It has to count, that’s how tennis works. I also have my matches which I lost when I was not at the top. 

“But he was definitely not the same player as he is right now. So in a way, it’s going to be like a first match between us in terms of how we are going to go tactically, or physically, or tennis-wise.  

“I mean, he’s amazing, he has amazing skills.”

The admiration is mutual. 

“He’s a wall,” said Alacaraz. “He returns every ball, impossible shots. 

“He’s an amazing runner, an amazing player.”

The Spaniard could almost have been describing himself. It should be quite a final.

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That was nonetheless the unfamiliar role in which the Polish world No 1 was cast on Friday night in Indian Wells as Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion and 10th seed, trounced the title holder 6-2, 6-2 to reach her first WTA 1000 final.

It was the 23-year-old Kazakh’s second straight-sets win over Swiatek in three months, following her fourth-round victory at the Australian Open, and the latest evidence of the Pole’s vulnerability to opponents equipped with the firepower and conviction to take on their shots and deny her time. 

As Rybakina suggested, it is not a good match-up for Swiatek, who received an unwelcome taste of her own medicine after conceding just 15 games en route to the semi-finals.  

“I think just my aggressive style of game [and] big serves,” said Rybakina, who will face Aryna Sabalenka in Sunday’s final, when asked how she has managed to win four sets in a row against a player whose recent results had suggested a return to the kind of all-conquering form that saw her complete the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami last year. 

“Today, I was pushing a lot. I think that just, overall, some players it’s more difficult to play against. With Iga, she’s tough, a really tough opponent. But when I play this good and everything goes in – because today some moments I played, I would say, on my highest level – there are moments where you can feel, ‘OK, I can beat anyone if I always play like this.’

“It’s the goal, but you never feel amazing and perfect every match. I think today it was just really good from me.”

Rybakina’s performance was all the more remarkable for following hard on the heels of two hours and 45 minutes of relentless toil against Karolina Muchova, the gifted Czech who put out former champion Victoria Azarenka earlier in the week. Having chastised herself for making a slow start to that match, Rybakina began at a rate of knots against Swiatek, rattling through her opening service game before claiming a break that set the tone for the entire contest. 

Much has been made of the slow conditions at the tournament – not least by Daniil Medvedev, whose midweek monologue on the subject seems destined to enter tennis folklore – but the Kazakh’s ability to hit through the court has made it look positively zippy at times. Time and again her clean, flat ball-striking and impeccable length, almost Djokovic-like in its precision and consistency, rushed Swiatek into error. The Pole’s exasperation was compounded by her apparent inability to get a read on Rybakina’s intentions, which frequently left her flat-footed as the Kazakh fired the ball in behind her. 

From 4-2 in the first set, Rybakina won seven games in a row to put the match beyond her beleaguered opponent. Swiatek belatedly held to avoid the indignity of a second-set whitewash, and even saved a couple of match points in the next game to lend an air of relative respectability to the score-line. But her discombobulation was evident when, serving to stay in the match for a second time, she produced a clean-air shot after getting her feet in a tangle. The end came mercifully swiftly after that, a final backhand pass flying long. 

Swiatek revealed afterwards that she is nursing a rib injury, although she hopes to be fit to defend her Miami Open title. It is no secret that the 21-year-old regards Rafael Nadal as a role model, but it would seem that this time she may have pushed her desire to emulate the great Spaniard, who suffered a cracked rib at the same stage of the tournament last year, a little too far.

“I’m not feeling 100% physically,” said Swiatek. “I have a little discomfort in my rib, and we’re going to consult with a medical team.

“We’ll see, because I still have to run some tests and see what’s going on. I don’t know yet.”

Rybakina, meanwhile, will now go forward to face Sabalenka, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over last year’s finalist Maria Sakkari, in a rerun of January’s Australian Open final. The Kazakh will be eager to alter the trajectory of a rivalry that has not been kind to her.

“I lost the last four times, and it was always three sets,” said Rybakina. “I [need] to play better in these important moments and hold serve, because I think a few times it was just because of one break.

“It’s not going to be an easy match, and it’s going to be in these clutch moments I just need to play better.”

If she reproduces the level she showed against Swiatek, she should do just fine. 

The post Rybakina humbles Swiatek to reach Indian Wells final appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

One puzzle Alcaraz has struggled to solve, however, is Felix Auger-Aliassime. Going into their quarter-final showdown in Indian Wells, the big-serving Canadian was unbeaten in three previous meetings between the pair, his stranglehold over the fledgling rivalry underlined by Alcaraz’s failure to break serve in 33 return games across those matches.

The devil is in the detail, of course, and it is worth noting that Alcaraz retired with an injury midway through the first of those defeats, which came in the US Open quarter-finals in 2021, while the next two matches were played on indoor hard courts, where Auger-Aliassime tends to be at his most effective. The imperative for Alcaraz as the pair locked horns in the California desert was nonetheless clear: puncture the aura of invincibility surrounding Auger-Aliassime’s serve as early as possible.

On an absorbing night in the Coachella Valley, this simple but compelling dynamic made for a contest of electrifying intensity. Alcaraz went about his business briskly, whistling through his early service games, forever impatient for his next crack at his opponent’s delivery, always ready to delve deeply into his extensive repertoire. As the Spaniard went about his work with evident relish, fashioning an early break point only to come out on the wrong end of a cat-and-mouse baseline exchange, the quality of the shot-making and court coverage from both men was rarely less than breath-taking. If this was a glimpse into the future of the men’s game, bring it on. 

“I watched videos, of course, from the last matches that I played against him,” said Alcaraz after sealing a 6-4, 6-4 victory in an hour and 59 minutes. 

“It’s something that I was really focused [on] before the match, trying to return every serve, trying to play aggressively and taking the opportunity when he’s serving the second serve. It’s something that I was thinking about since the beginning of the match.”

The pivotal moment came in the fifth game, a miniature classic in which the momentum swung back and forth for 12 minutes before Alcaraz finally achieved the breakthrough he craved. Throughout, Auger-Aliassime, no doubt as conscious as Alcaraz of the mental edge conferred by his dominance on serve, fought tigerishly to hold. When the Spaniard fashioned two break points with a signature move, forcing his opponent off the baseline with a colossal forehand before feathering away a drop shot, Auger-Aliassime responded with an ace and a brilliant forehand pass. 

The Canadian’s serve bailed him out once again before Alcaraz won the point of the match, defending superbly out of both corners, conjuring a magnificent lob to get himself back in the rally, and then working his way forward to punch away a volley. Ever the showman, Alcaraz cupped his hand to his ear after that one, exhorting the already fevered crowd to new heights of delirium. Again, though, the chance went begging, an outstanding rally ending with an Alcaraz mistake. Yet by now the pressure on Auger-Aliassime was becoming intolerable. A double fault gifted Alcaraz a fifth opportunity and this time the Spaniard made no mistake, somehow spearing a forehand pass beyond Auger-Aliassime at full stretch to move 3-2 ahead. A case of 36th time lucky.

As Alcaraz bounced up and down in unbridled delight, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, gestured to his temple. Ferrero, a former world No 1, knew the hard work was only just beginning and, sure enough, although Alcaraz continued to threaten with his return game, continually forcing Auger-Aliassime to raise his level merely to stay in touch, the Spaniard needed all his mental fortitude to see out the set. At 5-4, it all came down to a tale of two forehands, Auger-Aliassime failing to unload off that wing on his only break point of the set before Alcaraz stumbled in his gleeful enthusiasm to run around a backhand and blast an inside-in winner on set point.   

Having fought long and hard to achieve his first ever break against Auger-Aliassime, Alcaraz found the second rather easier to come by. From 40-30 up in the opening game of the second set, the Canadian produced three successive unforced errors. Alcaraz immediately ceded the advantage with some uncharacteristically poor decision-making, but relentless pressure from the Spaniard finally led to a decisive break in the ninth game, leaving him to seal his first victory over Auger-Aliassime with one last booming forehand.

“All I can say [is] that I took the opportunities this time,” said Alcaraz, who will reclaim the No 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic if he wins the title.

“I was really focused on the return today, [I knew] that it was really, really important for me. I never broke his serve until today, so it’s a good stat for me. I would say that the return was the key of everything.”

Beaten in the semi-finals by his countryman Rafael Nadal last year, Alcaraz will hope for better this time around against Jannik Sinner, the 11th seed, who ended Taylor Fritz’s reign as champion with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory. It will be their first meeting since Alcaraz won a titanic US Open quarter-final against the Italian six months ago. Another clash of generational talents awaits.

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Though she has struggled to produce her best in the California desert, Sakkari, the sixth seed, has made gladiatorial progress through the bottom half of the draw. The tone was set when she overcame an error-strewn start to her opener against Shelby Rogers, recovering from a set down to claim a first win in four meetings with the American, and she subsequently went the distance against both Anhelina Kalinina – another player against whom she had a losing record – and Karolina Pliskova, the Czech former world No 1, who beat her 6-1, 6-2 last month in Dubai. 

For Sakkari, it has been a tournament for conquering demons, for living to fight another day, for finding a way without ever quite finding form.

In Kvitova, however, the Greek world No 7 faced a player who bows to no one in her ability to navigate a crisis. The Czech not only saved four match points against Jessica Pegula in the last 16, winning a dramatic final-set tiebreak 13-11 to leave the American third seed musing on how she would “never get used to the ups and downs of this sport”, but also bounced back from a first-set whitewash at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko a round earlier. In fact, before facing Sakkari, Kvitova had won seven of her previous eight three-setters. 

No wonder the Greek, who recovered from a set and a break down, hailed “a bloody good win” after reaching the third WTA 1000 semi-final of her career.

“I’m just telling myself, ‘Look, you’re not playing your best tennis and you’re still winning and beating amazing players,’” said Sakkari after her seventh long-haul victory of the season. “I mean, my draw was, I would say, bloody tough.

“By just surviving and just finding ways, eventually I’m sure that my game is going to get better. I really want to see how it’s going to be when I start feeling good with my game.

“I think it’s been a very, very good week. I’m gaining a lot of confidence out of that, because it’s very easy when you win matches by playing good, but it’s not easy to beat good players by playing this way.”

It is harder still when you begin with a shank and a trio of unforced errors to lose your opening service game to love, as Sakkari did here. Kvitova’s fast start afforded her the freedom to continue in the free-swinging vein that propelled her to victory against Pegula. In the seventh game the 33-year-old broke to love for a second time, punishing Sakkari for a faltering performance on serve. The Greek made barely a third of her first serves in the opener and, although she narrowed a 5-2 deficit by winning two straight games, even that modest success was largely down to a loose passage of play from Kvitova.

With Sakkari overpressing, Kvitova seized the initiative early in the second set, pouncing on a short second serve to break before holding to consolidate. Had Sakkari not found a big plus-one forehand to stave off a point for a double break, her challenge would almost certainly have been extinguished. Instead, encouraged that another act of escapology might be possible, she began to work her way back into contention. Her serving improved markedly. Four break points were fended off. Then, with Kvitova serving at 5-6 and looking increasingly ragged off the ground, Sakkari doggedly worked her way back into a game that the Czech had led 40-0. She fashioned a set point, Kvitova missed a forehand, and suddenly the contest turned on its head, Sakkari’s superior consistency down the stretch proving decisive as Kvitova finished the match with 52 unforced errors. 

“The first set and a half, I felt like an amateur,” said Sakkari. “She was playing very, very good. I just didn’t know what to do.

“But then I just told myself to keep trying and keep fighting. Eventually I started playing better, which was a good thing. It was a lifesaver.”

Given that she faces Aryna Sabalenka next, Sakkari will need to find her A game quicky if she is to repeat last year’s run to the final. Sabalenka, the second seed, saw off Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 to claim her 16th win of the season, and only her second against the sixth-seeded American, who had won three of their four previous meetings coming into the contest. 

As Sabalenka explained, she is a different player since winning her first grand slam title at January’s Australian Open.

“I think I’m more calm on court, and I’m able to control my emotions, which helps me to stay in the game no matter what, and just fight for every point, without losing my mind and without giving easy points to opponents,” said Sabalenka.

The post Sakkari fights back to defeat Kvitova in Indian Wells appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

The court that Medvedev has so relentlessly and comically derided this week may yet have the last laugh. The former world No 1 said afterwards that he would have a scan to determine the extent of the damage before deciding whether to contest his quarter-final against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

There was visible swelling below Medvedev’s right ankle in the moments after he slipped, rolling the joint outwards and twisting his groin awkwardly as he attempted to change direction midway through the second set.

“Now that I have cooled down, it’s big,” said Medvedev, the fifth seed, following his 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 victory. “I cannot walk properly. But if everything is fine, I’m going to tape it tomorrow, take one painkiller, and go to play. So not much more to add for the moment. Pretty painful, but nothing too bad hopefully.”

Should he fail to make the starting line, the tournament will lose more than just the most successful player on the men’s tour over the past month. Medvedev’s antics have made him the hottest ticket in town this week, the Russian filling the comedic void left in the absence of last year’s Ben Stiller-Nick Kyrgios double act. In the previous round against Ilya Ivashka, Medvedev told the chair umpire he was going to “pee as slow as this court is, so you can take 25 minutes”.

“The court is slow, so I go slow, I take my time,” Medvedev continued, to general amusement.

Every good humorist strives to refine their routine, and that outburst proved merely an early sketch for the diatribe Medvedev delivered after losing the first set to Zverev on a tiebreak.

“It’s a disgrace to sport, this court,” he thundered as Renaud Lichtenstein, the French umpire, squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.

“We should be banned from playing here. A fricking disgrace to the sport, this fricking court. And they call it hard courts! What a shame to call this awful court a hard court.

“I’ll go to the toilet but I don’t care, give me a time violation, I’ll be as slow as this court again. I don’t care, give me five time violations, I’ll go in one minute.

“If they allow us to play on such a court, I can allow myself to do whatever I want.”

The one thing Medvedev could not do, with Zverev producing the finest tennis he has played since returning from the devastating ankle injury he suffered at Roland Garros last year, was establish the kind of control that recently carried him to a hat-trick of titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. After an early exchange of breaks, Zverev’s superior ability to hit through the slow conditions gradually began to tell. His willingness to take the ball on was particularly apparent against the second serve, behind which Medvedev had only a 40% success rate. As a result, the Russian spent much of the opener scrambling across the baseline, locked in a relentless cycle of retrieving and counter-punching. 

It remained a desperately tight affair – predictably so, given that a dozen previous meetings between the pair had been evenly shared – and at 5-6 Medvedev needed all his powers of escapology, saving three set points against his serve to force a tiebreak. But there was to be no reprieve when an overcooked forehand brought up another two set points for Zverev, the German seizing the initiative with a neat serve and volley to send his opponent into meltdown.

With Zverev the more natural aggressor, Medvedev’s injury midway through the second set proved, paradoxically, a blessing in disguise, forcing him to go for bigger shots in an effort to shorten the points. Moving gingerly at first, and then with increasing freedom as he grew accustomed to the taping on his ankle, Medvedev fended off a total of 10 break points in the set. By the time he reached the tiebreak, he was to be found launching himself at a high-bouncing ball from fully 10ft behind the baseline, pulling off an extraordinary overhead that flew past the stunned Zverev at the net. The shot immediately drew comparison with a similarly outrageous effort from Roger Federer against Andy Roddick in Basel in 2002.

“I saw some comments about Federer’s overhead,” said Medvedev, who quickly went on to level the match. “I was like, ‘Which one?’ Then I remembered the one against Roddick. His one was tougher, because he was on the run and out of the court. But if I remember right, the moment was a little bit less tight, in a way, because we had 1-1 in the tiebreak and I was one set to love down.

“I got lucky that he put the ball where I was standing. I’m also lucky that the courts here are slow, so I could actually hit it and it didn’t go over my head. The timing, the position of the ball was perfect, so I managed to kind of, in a way, hit the serve, but from a very far position. Only thing I said to myself, ‘Just hit it full power, there is no other choice.’ I hit it crosscourt. It was an amazing shot.”

Medvedev broke in the third game of the decider, Zverev screwing a forehand wide after the Russian had set up the opportunity by sprinting to retrieve a drop volley. As if to rub salt into the wound, Medvedev went on to consolidate the advantage with a stunning forehand pass on the run. It almost made a mockery of the notion that the Russian was injured, although he plainly was.

Zverev conjured one final act of defiance, saving a match point as he broke to level at 5-5, but there was to be no way back when he double-faulted – for only the third time in the three hour, 17 minute contest – at break point down in the next game.

“It was very surprising, it was much easier to move, to run, than to walk,” said Medvedev of his injury after advancing to the last eight in the California desert for the first time. “So when I was walking, I was limping, but then I was running fine. I can understand how frustrating it is for the opponent, but I was not faking, it was tough.”

It was tough on Zverev, too, who deserves credit not only for a fine performance but also for the concern he showed for his stricken opponent after a moment that must have sparked all kinds of unwelcome flashbacks to last summer, when he collapsed in agony after tearing his ankle ligaments against Rafael Nadal in Paris. On this evidence, Zverev is on track for a swift return to the top five.

As for Medvedev, fitness allowing, the stage remains his for now. Prepare to be entertained.

The post Comedy turns to calamity as Medvedev sees off Zverev appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

After fighting her way back from a set down in three consecutive rounds, Swiatek found her stride at the sharp end of the tournament and soon found herself hoisting a trophy again, brushing aside Maria Sakkari in the final to win a second tournament in a row. With her 11th straight victory, she rose to No 2 in the world for the first time, joining Agnieszka Radwanska as the highest-ranked Polish player in history. Life, it seemed, could not get any better. 

Except it did. Days later, Ashleigh Barty retired and Swiatek was crowned No 1. She marked the occasion by winning the Miami Open. Then came titles in Stuttgart, Rome and, in Paris, a second grand slam title. By the time she was finally beaten by Alizé Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon, she had accumulated 37 consecutive wins, equalling the longest winning streak since 1990. Before the year was out, she would add the US Open and San Diego titles to her burgeoning collection. It was a season for the ages.

But if 2022 was all about winning, this year is about dealing with the fallout from all that success. It is a task that runs significantly deeper than just defending points. What does success even look like, when you’ve already achieved so much? 

It is a brave new world, a reality brought home to Swiatek following her recent tear through the Middle Eastern swing. After an emphatic title defence in Doha, where she conceded just five games in three matches, the 21-year-old advanced to the final of the season’s first WTA 1000 event in Dubai, where she fell one match short of perfection against Barbora Krejcikova. Twelve months ago, Swiatek’s run would have been greeted with universal acclaim; now, the merest hint of vulnerability becomes a talking point. Such is the lot of the world’s top-ranked player. 

“Being No 1, I didn’t even dream about it, because I thought it’s not possible,” said Swiatek. “So it’s something that is totally over my expectations, and it’s a place where anyone would want to be. But for sure, it comes with a lot of pressure and expectations. 

“For example, after Doha and Dubai I felt it pretty strongly, because I won a WTA 500 and then I was in the final of a 1000, and it was like a small streak of matches that were pretty solid and I was really composed. But still I lost in a final, and people were surprised, slash not happy with the performance, slash just critical. 

“And it made me think that last year, before this huge streak, before winning all these tournaments, I would be so happy with the result. But because of these comments right now, I felt like, ‘Ooh, that’s not enough,’ you know. 

“So I’m trying not to read a lot of these things and I don’t want it to influence me, because I’m happy with the work I’ve [done] and how I played in Doha and Dubai. But this is an example of how people’s attitude changed a little bit, and I don’t think it’s a positive change.”

Positive change is an area in which Swiatek is well versed. Her semi-final run at last year’s Australian Open, an early indication of the hard-court highs to come, was underpinned by a newfound willingness to combine her defensive skills with a more aggressive approach. This year, after losing early in Melbourne to Elena Rybakina, she again changed tack to telling effect, retreating to Warsaw to refine her technique and reset her mind. In Indian Wells, where she will open her title defence against Claire Liu, a 22-year-old Californian ranked 56th, Swiatek will seek to implement the tactical lessons gleaned from her loss to Krejcikova in Dubai. 

“From every match I can take different stuff, because sometimes you make technical mistakes, and it’s pretty easy then, because you go and you work on that, and it’s getting better usually,” she said. 

“Sometimes it’s tactical, so it depends. But it’s always about analysing and about approaching another tournament with the knowledge that you gained. 

“For example, after Australia I knew technically what I had to change and my coach also knew, so we just worked in a really physical way on court for a couple of hours a day to make it better. But I think in Dubai it was more tactical, so from every defeat I can take a lot – and I’m using that knowledge, for sure.”

Given her draw, Swiatek is likely to need every advantage at her disposal. The third round could pit her against Bianca Andreescu, the 32nd seed and former US Open champion, while her projected last-16 opponent is Beatriz Haddad Maia, the powerful Brazilian who defeated her at the Canadian Open last autumn. Awaiting in the quarter-finals, if the seedings hold, will be Caroline Garcia, the French fifth seed. Garcia, a finalist in Lyon and Monterrey already this season, scored a memorable win over Swiatek at the Poland Open last summer, although she has struggled in the past to bring her formidable array of attacking skills to bear in the slow, often blustery conditions at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

With Ons Jabeur, the fourth seed, and Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, both returning from injury, Victoria Azarenka could emerge as the chief threat to Swiatek’s title defence in the second quarter. Twice a champion in the California desert – and runner-up to Paula Badosa in a thrilling three-set final two years ago – Azarenka knows the course and distance better than most. First, though, the Belarusian must navigate her way through a potentially tricky opener against the gifted and versatile Karolina Muchova.

Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, has only once advanced as far as the fourth round but, despite her protestations to the contrary, there was little sign of her struggling to bring her power to bear against Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina. 

“It was tricky game, I would say,” said Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, after opening her challenge with an impressive 6-2, 6-0 victory. “I didn’t expect her to play that slow. I was struggling a little bit with adjusting [to] the balls, because it was super slow. Super happy with this win.”

Elsewhere in the bottom half, Sakkari took advantage of a rain delay to fight back from a set down against Shelby Rogers. The Greek, seeded seventh, claimed her first win in four meetings with Rogers, who struggled with a calf injury in the final set, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Projected to meet Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals, Sakkari acknowledged that she will need to improve markedly if she is to make a second successive final.

“My level is nowhere near where I want it to be, but I’m OK with that and I’m going to work on it every single day in this tournament,” said Sakkari. “Obviously there is a little bit of pressure because I did well last year, but I just want to spend as much time as I can here.”

Pegula, the third seed, likewise came from a set down, seeing off Italy’s Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. The American remains the favourite to come through the third quarter but, on current form, Krejcikova looks like the player most likely to upset the applecart in the bottom half. The Czech, who got her campaign up and running with a 6-1, 6-2 over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, could face Sabalenka in round three.

Semi-final predictions: Swiatek to beat Azarenka; Pegula to beat Krejcikova.

Final prediction: Swiatek to beat Pegula.

The post Who can stop Swiatek in Indian Wells? appeared first on Love Game Tennis.