In Indian Wells final, Carlos Alcaraz ends Daniil Medvedev's 19-match win streak, ensuring return to No. 1

Championship Point: Absurdly good Alcaraz wins Indian Wells

Daniil Medvedev won the US Open in 2021 and became No. 1 in the world a few months later. But against a more recent US Open champion and a more recent No. 1 on Sunday, Medvedev looked like he wasn’t playing the same sport.

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That’s not because Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz have utterly different strokes—the Russian’s unorthodox and gritty; the Spaniard’s textbook and hyperspeed—but because Alcaraz has, in the span of just one hard-court tournament this season, returned to the domineering form that turned the tour on its head.

Fitting, then, that after the 19-year-old’s commanding, 6-3, 6-2 win over Medvedev—who came into Sunday’s Indian Wells final having won 19 consecutive matches and his last three tournaments—Alcaraz will return to No. 1 on Monday.

Alcaraz shouldn’t want this memorable day to end, given how impressive he looked against an opponent who seemingly couldn’t be beat.

"Sorry I didn't make this final entertaining," a drole Medvedev told the crowd during the trophy ceremony.

In winning the BNP Paribas Open, Alcaraz became the youngest man to win both Indian Wells and Miami, and he's now the second teenager to win at least three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. Alcaraz also won Madrid last year; Rafael Nadal won six Masters titles in his teens.

Alcaraz is also the first man to win Indian Wells without losing a set since Roger Federer in 2017

When you're mentioned alongside Roger and Rafa, you know things are going well.

In similar fashion to Sunday's earlier Indian Wells champion, Elena Rybakina,