Daniil Medvedev has stunned Carlos Alcaraz to reach the final at Indian Wells for the third time in his career.
Medvedev had backed his chances against Alcaraz coming into the match, despite having lost his last four matches against the Spaniard.
Alcaraz had won his first 16 matches of the 2026 season until facing Medvedev, who beat the world number one 6-3, 7-6(3).
After becoming the first player to beat Alcaraz this year, Medvedev has given his reaction to the match.
Daniil Medvedev explains what he did well to beat Carlos Alcaraz
Medvedev won the first set, but was forced to come from a break down and save two set points in the second set.
When speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Medvedev claimed that he played the biggest points very well.
“I mean it feels great, first set was super high level from me,” said Medvedev. “Second set he was getting the hold of me, so that’s how tennis is, sometimes you have to just hang in there.
“Probably he was a bit of a better player in the second set, bit more opportunities for him, a first break for him. I managed to stay in there, very good in crucial points, super happy with my performance and looking forward.”
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It has been quite a turnaround for Medvedev, who won just one Grand Slam match last year and subsequently fell to his lowest ranking since 2019.
Medvedev has already won two titles this year, and is now just one win away from his first Masters 1000 tournament victory since 2023.
When asked about why he thinks his form has changed so much, Medvedev suggested that his attitude to just keep trying to improve has certainly contributed to this.
“Well first of all I’m just happy that it’s changed,” answered Medvedev. “I’ll be honest, same as the previous question, I don’t know but when it was not working I was trying, I was never in the mindset of ‘Okay, I’ve achieved a lot in my career, I might take it easy’.
“No, as you can see at the US Open and some other tournaments I was losing myself, because I couldn’t understand what was happening and it was frustrating me.
“So I’m happy that I managed to find back my rhythm, show the world that I’m still a good tennis player, and can be a good tennis player, and I hope to continue improving.”
After his first round defeat at the US Open last year, Medvedev split from Gilles Cervara, who he had worked with for eight years, before bringing in a new coaching team of former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke.
Medvedev was then asked about the impact they have had on his game, as he revealed what he was told when searching for a new coach.
“No 100%, I did talk to many coaches after I finished with Gilles and some of the best coaches we have in the game right now said that in their opinion the player-coach relationship should kind of stop after four/five years, because after it’s stagnated that’s what I heard,” said Medvedev.
“I was like okay that’s an interesting opinion, and as you say they don’t say any magic things, but it’s a different energy, different vibe in the team and I’m playing good again.”
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Tim Henman states what he ‘loves’ about Daniil Medvedev beating Carlos Alcaraz
Former Wimbledon semifinalist Tim Henman stated that he wanted Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s dominance to end recently, so it was no surprise to see that he was pleased with Medvedev’s win.
When reacting to Medvedev’s win, Henman claimed that experience helped him beat Alcaraz, as he was full of praise for the former world number one.
“Yeah, it’s a phenomenal performance from Daniil Medvedev,” said Henman. “What I love is that is emphasises that it’s not a foregone conclusion, we’ve seen Alcaraz and Sinner dominate so often, certainly in the Grand Slams over best of five it’s even harder.
“But I think Medvedev deserves so much credit, the way that he’s come out and continued the way that he has played against Jack Draper, so aggressive, hitting the ball so hard from the back of the court, so flat, so little margin for error and not missing, and once you can get a little bit of scoreboard pressure it affects even the best players.
“Getting that first set under his belt, he was down a break in the second, he broke back immediately and I think because of his experience, he’s won a Grand Slam, he’s been world number one, he has beaten the best before, it was that experience that really helped him once he got into that second set tie-break.”
Medvedev has now won his last nine matches in a row, and he will look to make it 10 in the Indian Wells final.
This is where he will play Sinner, who overcame a back issue to beat Alexander Zverev and reach his first Indian Wells final.
Sinner leads the head-to-head against Medvedev 8-7, but more importantly he has won eight out of their last nine meetings.
Whatever the outcome of the final match, a new Indian Wells men’s singles champion will be crowned on Sunday, March 15.
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