Carlos Alcaraz said he needed to be “perfect” to beat Daniil Medvedev—and he succeeded

Interview with the Indian Wells champion: Carlos Alcaraz

“He’s a wall,” Carlos Alcaraz said when he was asked for his opinion of Daniil Medvedev before they met on Sunday in the Indian Wells final. “I have to make, let’s say, everything perfect. That’s all I’m gonna think tomorrow.”

For most players, “making everything perfect” would be a daunting goal to set for yourself. Not for Alcaraz, not at this stage of his career, when the energy and optimism of youth flows like electricity through his arms and legs. For an hour and 11 minutes against Medvedev, the 19-year-old Spaniard hit all of his best shots, and made beating a guy who was on a 19-match win streak look easy.

It only took five minutes for the signs to start looking ominous for Medvedev. On the first point of the Russian’s first service game, Alcaraz hit a forehand return hard and deep. Medvedev, backed up by the weight of the shot, sent a floating ball to the middle of the court. Alcaraz cruised up and hammered it for an inside-out forehand winner. He didn’t have to run hard to get there, and he didn’t have to hit the ball anywhere close to the lines, but Medvedev was still nowhere near it. A couple of minutes later, Alcaraz broke serve with another forehand winner.

From there, the floodgates quickly opened, and Alcaraz showed off all of the many ways he can win a point. At 2-0, he held at love with a drop-shot winner. At 3-1, he surprised Medvedev by twice hitting his serve down the T and following it to net. At 4-2, he powered two big forehands for two more winners. At 5-3, he hit two drop-volley winners. In the second set, he topped himself by winning three points with forehand drop-shot winners in one game.

“I have no doubts about my shots [today],” Alcaraz said. “I feel really comfortable on court. I really trust in every shot that I hit.”

By then, Medvedev looked like a man who was searching for an answer, without really believing he was going to find it. He double faulted to lose his opening service game of the second set at love. Down the stretch, he could never put enough balls in to make Alcaraz nervous.

“Why didn’t I play my best?” Medvedev asked himself afterward. “I don’t know. Maybe it was his ball. Maybe it was the wind, because it was windy today, and for him it was easier to go through this wind. So I have no real reasons.

“He probably played good.”

Alcaraz’s stats make that assessment sound like a bit of an understatement. He was successful on 76 percent of his first serves, and won 81 percent of those points. He hit 19 winners and held Medvedev to just four. He was three for three on break points, and 10 of 13 at the net.

I have no doubts about my shots. I really trust in every shot I hit. Carlos Alcaraz

This time, though, it wasn’t the show-stopping winners that were most impressive about Alcaraz’s performance, at least to me. It was the way he dialed the risk down just a bit when he was ahead, and made sure he didn’t give Medvedev a shred of hope.

If Alcaraz has had a flaw so far, it’s that he keeps swinging for the fences even when he gets tight trying to close out matches. The result can be wild oscillations in his level of play. In the first set of his semifinal against Jannik Sinner on Saturday, he went up 4-2, then lost three straight games and had to save a set point, before finally winning it in a tiebreaker. Something like that could easily have happened against Medvedev, who makes his opponents work for everything they get. But Alcaraz was content to rally, move the ball around, and work the point, rather than pull the trigger early. His reward was a drama-free denouement to his title run.

Before the match, Alcaraz said his strategy was to be flawless. Afterward, he said he was satisfied that he had executed the game plan.

“I’d said before that against Daniil you have to play your best, and tactic at your best level as well,” Alcaraz said. “Against him is always a tactic match, and I did perfect today. That’s why it looks easy, but it wasn’t.”

Alcaraz’s win sends him back to No. 1, a position he relinquished when he couldn’t play the Australian Open in January. He’s not yet 20, but he’s already into his second stint at the top. More important, judging from the way he closed out this final, he knows what improvements he needs to make, and he’s making them.

Despite what he said about his play today, he’s not quite perfect yet. Which might be the scariest thing of all.