Carlos Alcaraz emulates Novak Djokovic feat as Iga Swiatek act stuns tennis world

Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek have returned to title-winning ways taking out the ATP and WTA Indian Wells titles. The men's World No.2 was dominant, defending his tournament crown with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 win over Daniil Medvedev in the final.

The victory gave the 20-year-old his first trophy since Wimbledon last July and made him the first man to defend a championship in the California desert since Novak Djokovic won three straight between 2014-2016. Alcaraz had been battling an ankle injury which forced him to withdraw from last month's Rio Open but it didn't slow him down in Indian Wells. The Spaniard dropped the first set of the tournament in a tie-break against Matteo Arnaldi but didn't drop another for the remainder of the tournament.

"Winning this tournament means a lot to me because the week before it began I had a lot of doubts about my ankle," Alcaraz said. "But once I stepped on the court for the first round it started to feel better and as I said after every match, I was feeling better and better. Really, really happy to be able to win this tournament again." And the tennis world erupted following his straight sets victory, declaring the Spaniard is back better than ever.

In a rematch of last year's final, Alcaraz started slow, with an array of errors to begin the match that saw him fall 3-0 down but quickly raised his level to get back on serve and eventually force a tiebreak. In the closely fought tiebreaker, Alcaraz pounded a forehand that his Russian opponent could not redirect to hand the Spaniard the first set.

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Alcaraz then dominated the second set, smacking 25 winners to Medvedev's 11 and was especially effective against his opponent's second serves. "I enjoy playing these kind of matches with you," Alcaraz told Medvedev during the trophy ceremony. "Hopefully more finals ahead."

Iga Swiatek continues post-Australian Open surge

The World No.1 showed she has put her Australian Open disappointment firmly in her rear vision mirror, easily dispatching Maria Sakkari 6-4 6-0 in the WTA Indian Wells final to claim the title for a second time. In a rematch of the 2022 showpiece in the Californian desert, Swiatek was dominant from start to finish in a tournament where she didn't drop a set.

Swiatek - who won her third straight Qatar Open in Doha last month - after claiming the title said she was proud of her mental strength following the disappointment of her Australian Open exit.

"Right now I just feel I've done really good work," said the 22-year-old, who was upset in the third round of January's Australian Open. "It hasn't been easy after Australia, and I've been working hard to play well and to handle everything mentally well.

"Even though this tournament looked like, the scores, maybe I had everything under control, it wasn't from the beginning to the end so easy. So I'm happy I could improve during the tournament. I felt really good on the last two matches, big amount of confidence. I'm really proud of myself."

with AAP

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