Jannik Sinner completes historic hardcourt set with Indian Wells title
· Yahoo Sports
Jannik Sinner’s win on Sunday, March 15, at Indian Wells didn’t merely add another title to his growing résumé. The win is one that very well could, one day down the road, help make his case as the best hardcourt player in the history of the game.
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It’s not hyperbole. Novak Djokovic is widely regarded as the game’s best hardcourt player, for good reason. Djokovic holds all the major hardcourt records. But with Sinner’s 7-6(6), 7-6(4) win over Daniil Medvedev in the BNP Paribas Open final, Sinner is on a trajectory to potentially challenge Djokovic as the hardcourt GOAT.
Until Sunday, Djokovic was the only player to complete the entire hardcourt super set, winning the Australian Open, U.S. Open, ATP Finals, Indian Wells, Miami, Cincinnati, Shanghai, Paris and the Canadian Open. Djokovic ultimately won each of those multiple times, but he didn’t complete the set until the age of 31.
With his win Sunday, the Italian tennis star has now completed the set at just 24.
"I'm very happy," Sinner told reporters after the match. "Obviously it was a great week. We tried to come here very early. I knew that this was a tournament I haven't won, so I wanted to come here and prepare it in the best possible way, as professional. Having now this achievement means a lot to me."
Neither player broke serve the entire match.
Trailing 6-5 in the first set tiebreak, Medvedev saved a set point to even the score. But Sinner scored another point on a slice, then had another set point opportunity with his serve. He won the point to win the first set in the match as the mid-afternoon temperature rose to 96 degrees.
Sinner said following Saturday’s semifinal win over Alexander Zverev that he shorted points up because the intense heat was bothering him. In the second set against Medvedev, Sinner did it again, dominating the points on his first serve (91%) and taking shots that did not extend rallies.
Then, in the second set tiebreak, Medvedev took the early 4-0 lead before Sinner scored the next seven. Retired Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi, sitting courtside, placed his hands on his head in disbelief at some of Sinner’s forehand winners.
For the win, Sinner will take home a prize of $1,511,380.
Oscar winner Charlize Theron and tech mogul Bill Gates were among the more than 15,000 in attendance for the match on Stadium Court.
The win extends Sinner’s set win streak at ATP Masters 1000 events to 21 sets, which is tied with Carlos Alcaraz (2023) for second behind Djokovic’s record of 24 consecutive wins (2016). Sinner has not lost a set match or a set at a Masters 1000 event dating back to last year in Paris.
Sinner has been almost unbeatable since the end of last season, when he won his final three tournaments – Vienna, Paris and the ATP Finals – and dropped just one set in 15 matches at those events. He then lost a five-set semifinal match against Djokovic at the Australian Open in January and in the quarterfinals in Doha before coming to Indian Wells.
Sinner’s win ended a resurgence for Medvedev, another hardcourt dynamo who won a title in Dubai prior to coming to Indian Wells. Medvedev was stuck in Dubai with fellow Russians Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov as airports amid conflict in the Middle East. Just getting to Indian Wells, with stops in Omen, Istanbul and Los Angeles, was a miracle for Medvedev.
All three were barely able to make it to Indian Wells in time for the tournament, and Medvedev played some of the best tennis of his career in not dropping a set until the final and beating defending champion Jack Draper in the quarterfinals and top-ranked Alcaraz in the semifinals.
"I know that I can be a good tennis player," Medvedev said. "And I will try my best to, whoever is on the other side of the net, maybe it's Carlos and Jannik, maybe it's someone else, I will just try to play some good tennis, which I proved I can do again here, Dubai, Brisbane."
The loss was the third in an Indian Wells final for Medvedev, who like Sinner had not dropped a set at the event entering the final. A win would have allowed Medvedev to complete the set of titles at all six Masters 1000 hardcourt events.
A Medvedev win would have also made him the first players since Juan Martin de Potro in 2018 to beat the two top-ranked players in the world en route to an Indian Wells title. Del Potro beat Nadal (2) and Federer (1) in the semifinals and finals that year.
But Sinner would not be denied.
Sinner is off to a dominant start to his career on hardcourts. In Slams alone, for example, he won 41 of his first 50 hardcourt matches at Slams, which is the same record Federer began his career with, and one win more than Djokovic and Nadal began theirs with.
Sinner is now 50-11 at hardcourt Slams, is the youngest to reach a final at both hardcourt Slams and is 17-3 at Indian Wells and 19-3 at Miami, where he’ll play next for another hardcourt title.
Andrew John covers the BNP Paribas Open for The Desert Sun and USA TODAY. Email him at [email protected]. Follow in on Instagram: @desertwriter.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Jannik Sinner tops Daniil Medvedev, makes history at Indian Wells