Indian Wells (Reuters)
After falling behind by a set, Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, rose up and defeated his Italian rival, Jannik Sinner, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the final of the Indian Wells Tennis Championship in California, and stop Sinner's winning streak this season, which lasted 16 matches. Consecutive.
Australian Open champion Sinner was the brightest player in this year's tournaments, and seemed poised to win the match, which was delayed for three hours due to rain, when he won the first set in 34 minutes, after the Spaniard sent the ball wide.
But Alcaraz broke Sinner's serve and took a 3-1 lead in the second set, then played a volley that Sinner, despite his speed, did not attempt to return, forcing a third set to decide the outcome of the match.
In the third set, Alcaraz broke Sinner's serve, and Sinner appeared to be suffering from a problem with his left hand, after trying to save a break point, and colliding with the hard court.
The Spanish player broke his opponent's serve again to lead 4-1, before clinching the victory with a forehand, depriving Sinner of seizing second place in the world from him, and the 20th consecutive victory in a winning streak that extends from last year.
In the final match, Alcaraz will meet Russian Daniil Medvedev, seeded fourth in the tournament, who won the second semi-final match over American Tommy Paul 1-6, 7-6, 6-2.
And against Paul, who played in front of his country's fans, Medvedev achieved a return similar to that of Alcaraz, although the American player was fast and only lost one game in the first set before Medvedev's uprising.
Paul saved two points to decide the second set, but Medvedev won five points in a row to tie the score at 1-1, and the match extended to a deciding set in which the Russian player clearly excelled, and Alcaraz had beaten Medvedev in the tournament final last year.
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