Carlos Alcaraz beat Daniil Medvedev into silence in the Indian Wells final to win his first title since Wimbledon last summer. But what does this mean for his chances of beating Novak Djokovic to the top of the world rankings?
Alcaraz turned up the heat when he beat Medvedev 7-6(5), 6-1 to win back-to-back titles in Indian Wells. This came after his epic win over Jannik Sinner, the Australian Open winner, in the semi-finals.
It’s possible that this was an even better showing than the one Alcaraz put on against Sinner on Saturday, when he ended the Italian’s perfect record in 2024 with a thrilling fight.
After successfully defending his Indian Wells title, Alcaraz kept the 1,000 ranking points he won at the event last year. He will now have the chance to gain more ranking points at the Miami Open.
Novak Djokovic, the current world number one, chose not to play in Miami and said he will only play in a few tournaments in 2024. It may be likely that his long reign at the top of the ATP rankings will end this year.
Yet, Alcaraz might have to wait for his chance because he needs to protect a lot of points from last year’s run to the semi-finals in Miami, as well as from his wins on clay courts in Barcelona and Madrid.
He made it to the semi-finals of the French Open and won on grass courts at the Queen’s Club in London and, most famously, in a famous match against Djokovic at Wimbledon last summer.
This means that Alcaraz may have to wait until the second half of 2024 to beat Djokovic and become world No. 1.
No. 3 in the world Sinner may have a better chance of moving up to the top of the rankings since he doesn’t have to protect as many ranking points over the next few months. He could also catch up to Djokovic and Alcaraz if he does well on clay courts.
Alcaraz is enjoying his latest win at Indian Wells and isn’t thinking about the race to the top of the rankings right now.
He said, “Winning tournaments helps a lot when you go to the next ones.”
It’s clear that winning the Masters 1000 again—it’s a very tough event to win—gives you more drive to keep going and more confidence for Miami and what’s to come. It’s amazing to me to lift this beautiful prize again.
Henman, who used to be the best boxer in Britain, said it wasn’t a surprise that Alcaraz was back to winning titles, and he backed the Spaniard to build on his most recent win in the Californian desert.
“It looks like he was made to win these title fights.” He looks really driven. “He’s working hard,” Henman said.
“It will be interesting to see how many Grand Slams and Masters 1000 titles he can win in the future.”It’s crazy to win so much at this age.
The only other person in the event’s history to win the men’s singles title back-to-back before turning 21 was Boris Becker in 1987 and 1988.
