(March 17, 2024) INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz took home second trophies in Indian Wells on Sunday. No. 1 Iga Swiatek beat No. 9 Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-0 to win her second BNP Paribas title. No. 2 Alcaraz rallied from a break down in the first set to beat No. 4 Daniil Medvedev 7-6(5), 6-1 to defend the title from last year.
“I’m really proud of myself,” said the 22-year-old woman from Poland. “I’m super happy. I mean, 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.”
“You never want to lose and leave the tournament as a loser, but at the same time, there are so many good things that happened the last two weeks that, you know, I cannot just ignore,” said Sakkari.
“I think I’ll get this one day.”
Alcaraz is the first player to defend the title in Indian Wells since Novak Djokovic in 2016.
“Well, it’s great. It’s never easy,” said the 20-year-old Spaniard. “I think it’s even more difficult if it’s a Masters 1000. I’m really happy to show really good tennis this tournament. It’s a really special place for me. Yeah, really happy to be able to defend the title here in Indian Wells.”
“You can overcome all the problems that you have. It doesn’t matter what problems you have. If you believe in yourself, you have a really good team around, you work hard, everything can turn around.
“I think that’s the most lesson that I take from this tournament.”
This was Alcaraz’s first tournament win since Wimbledon last year.
“It’s difficult to put it into words, because I had really difficult months,” said Alcaraz. “Let’s say the last two months it was difficult for me to find myself. I didn’t enjoy, let’s say, stepping on the court. I wasn’t myself on the court the last two months, let’s say, two months, three months, so it was difficult for me.”
“Yeah, it means a lot to me, lifting this trophy, winning this tournament, because I overcome a lot of problems in my head, a lot of problems physically. It was so special for that. Not that I didn’t win a tournament since Wimbledon.
“For me, it doesn’t matter. It’s about the feelings, as I said. For me, if I win tournaments or not, I don’t care. It’s about enjoying playing tennis, once I step on the court, putting my game. It’s what only matters.
“That’s why I’m really, really happy to lift this trophy, because I found myself at this tournament, and I felt really, really good.”
More to follow….
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