Medvedev sets Alcaraz rematch in Indian Wells final with comeback win

Daniil Medvedev returned to the BNP Paribas Open final for the second consecutive year with a three-set comeback victory against home hope Tommy Paul on Saturday night.

With his 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 win, Medvedev set a rematch of last year's Indian Wells final against Carlos Alcaraz, who continued his title defence with a fightback of his own against Jannik Sinner. 

"It was very tough. When it's evening and cold here, it's very tough to go through the serve," said Medvedev, who was broken in all three of his first-set service games. "I understood that, and he played an unbelievable first set. So I was like, OK, if I want to win I just have to try to do a little bit better to find the shot that's going to make him in trouble. I found some, especially on my serve.

"Then the match started to be a long fight. Even in the third set, it was 6-2, but it was very, very long games and I think it was a long set. So I'm really happy to be able to pull this out."

Man on a mission 🚀@DaniilMedwed | @BNPPARIBASOPEN | #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/EqgUSqlRBu

— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 17, 2024

Medvedev is bidding to complete the set of titles at all six hard-court ATP Masters 1000s, having previously triumphed in Cincinnati (2019), Shanghai (2019), Paris (2020), Canada (2021) and Miami (2023). By reaching his 10th final at that prestigious level, he has tied Gustavo Kuerten, Thomas Muster and Alexander Zverev for the eighth-most Masters 1000 finals.

Paul made a blistering start in front of his home fans and built a 4-0 lead with big cuts off his forehand wing. Medvedev did not secure his first service hold until the opening game of set two, but he used that love hold to spark his own sprint to a 4-0 advantage in the second set.

The fourth seed worked his way into the match by dragging Paul into longer rallies, but the American continued to attack at every opportunity and forced a tie-break with a heavy dose of skillful net approaches. He won 17 of 31 net points (55%) in the second set, but paid for untimely errors down the stretch in the tie-break.

One of the points of the match came with Paul serving at 3/2 in that tie-break. A lob pushed the serve-and-volleying Paul off the net before Medvedev stretched for two tough volleys to reclaim a mini-break. Paul appeared to twist his ankle while retrieving Medvedev's first volley and did not win a point for the rest of the set.

The American had his ankle re-taped before the third but quickly found himself down a double break as Medvedev continued to fend off his varied attacks. Paul kept the pressure on by creating two break points at both 4-1 and 5-2, but Medvedev had just enough answers to close out the match in two hours, 23 minutes to return to the final.

Medvedev trails Alcaraz 2-3 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with the Spaniard winning three of their four meetings in 2023. The most decisive of those results came in the Indian Wells final, when Alcaraz scored a 6-3, 6-2 win.

"I saw Carlos today, he was playing pretty well, second and third set especially," Medvedev assessed. "I know what happened last year so I'm going to try my best to try to turn this around, to play better, to play stronger, more on the lines, hit more aces, stuff like this. Hopefully I will be able to do it. I will recover and get ready for the fight tomorrow."