Carlos Alcaraz continued his winning run at Indian Wells after beating Quentin Halys in his opening match at the 2025 tournament.
Alcaraz is bidding for Indian Wells history this year, as he is the two-time defending champion at the Californian Masters 1000 event.
The Spaniard is the top ranked player remaining in the Indian Wells draw, with top seed Alexander Zverev losing his only match at the tournament this year.
World number one Jannik Sinner is also not at Indian Wells this year, after being banned from tennis for three months.
Alcaraz is targeting the world number one ranking, as he looks to close the gap on Sinner in his absence away from the ATP Tour.
Carlos Alcaraz achieves ATP record at Indian Wells only bettered by Rafael Nadal
In between the Australian Open and Roland Garros, the sunshine double of Indian Wells and the Miami Open is a hugely significant part of the tennis calendar.
While Alcaraz has not completed the sunshine double in a single calendar year yet, the world number three has won both tournaments on separate occasions.
Following his straight sets victory over Halys, Alcaraz reached a sunshine double milestone after winning his 30th match.
At 21 years and 309 days, Alcaraz is the second youngest player in history to achieve that feat behind Rafael Nadal.
Nadal managed to get win his 30th match at the sunshine double at 21 years and 304 days in 2008, when he was just five days younger than Alcaraz.
Although he currently trails his compatriot in this record, Alcaraz has achieved something that Nadal hasn’t already this year with his only title victory so far in 2025.
Carlos Alcaraz explains why he sometimes gets nervous before matches
Alcaraz has now extended his Indian Wells winning streak to 13 matches, with the four-time Grand Slam champion now looking for more records.
With history potentially on the line, Alcaraz explained why he was nervous ahead of his match against Halys.
“Well, because it’s, you know, it’s kind of new,” said Alcaraz. “I mean, I have played the tournaments a lot of times, but every year is kind of different. Different feelings, different, I gonna say different everything.
“This is the first time, if I’m not wrong, that I’m playing against Halys, for example, so I didn’t know how it’s gonna be at the beginning. So that’s why I was a little bit nervous.
“Obviously talking about this tournament, it’s something that I really want to go far, and probably it is an extra pressure. That’s why I was a little bit nervous.
“So I try to show that I wasn’t, but I think it is normal and it’s gonna be like that in every tournament, I guess.”
Alcaraz will look to continue his winning run at Indian Wells on Monday March 10 against Dallas Open champion Denis Shapovalov.
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