By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, March 14, 2026
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
INDIAN WELLS—The imperfect provocateur shattered the two-time champion’s perfect record.
A defiant Daniil Medvedev denied two set points stunning world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 7-6(3) snapping the Australian Open champion’s perfect 16-0 start to the season to surge into his third BNP Paribas Open final.
In a clash of current and former world No. 1 players, Medvedev saved set points at 4-5, slamming a serve winner on the second break point, physically punished Alcaraz, leaving the 22-Spaniard sucking wind after long exchanges and incur a time violation amid searing 92-degree heat and unleashed a level of play even more assertive than the form he showed shattering Novak Djokovic’s dream of completing the calendar Grand Slam by winning the 2021 US Open final in straight sets.
“It’s just a great feeling,” Medvedev said. “You play someone like Carlos many times, you lose many times.
“He’s an amazing player so you have to be at your best and I was. I saved one or two set points and one or two break points. I was hanging in there super happy to beat a champion like him.”
A classy Alcaraz praised the “unreal” Medvedev as a worthy winner.
“Well, first of all, I just have to give credit to Daniil. I think he just played an amazing match,” Alcaraz said. “Since the start of the match until the end of the, you know, the match, he was playing unreal, I gotta say. I have never seen, to be honest, playing Daniil like this.
“He deserves completely the win today. He deserves completely to get through and playing a final here. All I can say is just congratulations to him. From my side, I just played a few games mostly in the first set that I just let go my serve game, and part of that, I just running all the time against him.
“So it was tough for me, but, you know, just proud to see that I just fought until the last ball.”
Dubai champion Medvedev scored his ninth consecutive victory and rides a streak of 18 straight sets against world No. 2 Jannik Sinner in tomorrow’s final that will be staged in oppressive 93-degree heat tomorrow.
Wimbledon winner Sinner, like Medvedev, has not surrendered a set in the tournament.
Sinner stomped Alexander Zverev 6-2, 6-4 in a one hour, 23-minute opening semifinal.
ATP Finals champion Sinner scored his sixth straight win over Zverev and holds an 8-7 lead over Medvedev in their head-to-head series. The lanky Italian has defeated the 6’6” Russian contrarian three times in a row. Sinner famously rallied from a two-set deficit wearing Medvedev down in a 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 comeback win in the 2024 Australian Open final.
“He’s back to very, very high level. Very big serve,” Sinner said of Medvedev. “I feel like. You know, he’s
returning very well. Very, very deep. Everyone is trying to be slightly more aggressive.
“And I think Daniil has found again a good, good balance on court, winning a title in Dubai, coming here, making again great results.”
An experimental player who has changed strings mid-match at majors, Medvedev stills plays the same clever counterstrike style he created under ex-coach Gilles Cervara, but credits new coaches—Aussie Rohan Goetzke and former AO champion Thomas Johansson—in bringing a new energy to his game.
These days Medvedev is more willing to step in and strike offensively from atop the baseline, is serving with more ambition and sharper direction and at age 30 his endurance level has rarely been higher. After one lengthy rally, Alcaraz was huffing and puffing reaching for the towel to regain his wind, while Medvedev strode up to the baseline ready to serve as if unfazed by the sweltering conditions and acrobatic champion across the net.
Offseason conditioning has helped Medvedev build this nine-match winning streak—and wear down two fit champions in Alcaraz and defending champion Jack Draper, who the Russian dethrone in a contentious quarterfinal.
“I love this preseason work,” Medvedev said. “I usually work hard physically. I work hard tennis-wise, mentally, and I usually come out better after the preseason.
“When you play [ATP Finals in] Turin, you have a shorter preseason, so this is the first time in probably six, seven years I had a longer preseason, and working great.”
Today, the 11th-seeded Medvedev broke for a 3-1 lead.
Cracking flat and slider serves, Medvedev won 12 of his final 15 service points in building a one-set lead.
Though Alcaraz, the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam, broke for a 3-1 second-set lead, he played a sloppy fifth game and Medvedev broke right back for 2-3.
Serving at 4-5, Medvedev stood tall facing severe set-point stress. On the second set point Medvedev snaked a serve winner down the T.
Though Alcaraz tormented the lanky Russian with repeated droppers beating Medvedev in the 2023 and 2024 finals, Medvedev ran down a drop shot, shoveled a reply down the line and watched Alcaraz blown an open-court opportunity netting a shot. That moment gave Medvedev a stubborn hold to level at 5-all.
Alcaraz said blistering on-court conditions and an oppressive Medvedev conspired to knock him out.
“It was because of the heat. I mean, the first set, I wasn’t bad at all, but I just felt like the long rallies, especially when you play against Daniil, that the rallies are long, that you have to increase all the power
in almost every shot,” Alcaraz said. “So it feels like you’re wasting extra energy after every shot. And with the heat, sometimes it’s really tricky to deal with all of that.
“So the first set was a little bit of struggling for me, but it was because he just made it. He just made it that I had to struggle a little bit.”
Tested again in the 12th game, Medvedev threw down the fastest serve of the match that helped him hold to force the tiebreaker.
The unbeaten AO champion unraveled in the breaker. After Medvedev banged a backhand crosscourt for 2-1, Alcaraz made three miscues in a row, including netting a dropper, then Medvedev torched a serve winner for a fistful of match points at 6-1.
Alcaraz aced away the first, drew an error to save the second.
On this day, nothing would stop the Meddy magic: Medvedev slashed an ace down the T to close in one hour, 37 minutes.
Consider all that king of chaos Medvedev has survived to reach this final. He was trapped in Dubai following his title run as the United States and Israel’s joint attack on Iran prompted a concerted counter-attack.
Medvedev endured a long car ride to reach an alternate airport, arrived in the desert let then created controversy in his win over Draper. Medvedev used VAR to successfully support his argument the Brit’s hand gesture was a hindrance. That ruling favored Medvedev, gave him Love-30 at 5-all on the Draper served and helped propel him to a 6-1, 7-5 victory.
Afterward a candid Medvedev conceded he got over on that call.
“Was I distracted big time? No. Do I feel good about it? Not really. But I also don’t feel like I cheated or something,” Medvedev said. “So I got a bit distracted. I let it go, I let the referee decide. I had a lot of calls against me in my life, and I usually don’t handle them well. To get one on my side, I guess feels good as well.”
In an era where Sincaraz finals have become almost an inevitably, lead it to an inspired Medvedev, mischief maker and magic shotmaker, to spoil the party and bring his own unique buzz to this desert blast.
The beauty of Medvedev is his unique style s a player and a personality. Refreshingly, Medvedev is willing to question everyone and everything, including himself. In his pressers, we’ve seen Medvedev question if the balls are even round in Rotterdam, chair umpire Fergus Murphy’s propensity for calling time violations quickly…on players not named Novak or Rafa…and his own morality in a sort of shady alleging of a Draper hindrance.
While Medvedev may be playing a more assertive game, he’s still an independent thinker with the ability to create some ingenious shotmaking.
Embracing his imperfections, Medvedev punctured Alcaraz’s perfect season with a riveting performance.