Daniil Medvedev stunned Indian Wells on Saturday, halting Carlos Alcaraz’s 16-match winning run with a composed 6-3, 7-6 victory in the semi-finals. The triumph sent the World No.11 into his third final at the desert event, completed without the loss of a set. Toppling the defending champion was impressive enough, yet for Medvedev, ending streaks seems to have become something of a habit.

In 2021, Novak Djokovic had dominated every Grand Slam. After winning the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon, the Serb also managed to reach the US Open final. At this point, he was on a 27-match winning streak at the Grand Slam level and was on the verge of becoming the first man in more than half a century to win the coveted calendar-year Grand Slam. However, he met a steady Medvedev in the final, who defeated him 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to the surprise of many.

To date, it is the one and only Grand Slam title that Medvedev has won. His hard-court dominance during that time led to him becoming the World No.1 in February 2022 despite having been defeated by Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final just a month earlier. However, he wasn’t able to hold onto the ranking for even a month as Djokovic dethroned him soon after.

However, Daniil Medvedev did regain the top spot by June but lost it again in September to Carlos Alcaraz. He wasn’t able to reach the top of the rankings again and even ended up moving out of the top 10 by January of 2023. He made it back to the top 10 soon after and even became World No.2 in May of that year. But from that point on, his ranking kept on going down, and he once again dropped out of the top 10 in March 2025.

While the 30-year-old had a disappointing 2025 and was able to capture just one title throughout the season, he has made a fantastic start to 2026. He clinched the Brisbane International title in January by defeating the USA’s Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 7-6 in the final. Though a fourth-round exit at the Australian Open was highly disappointing, he bounced back in the Dubai Championships last month.

The Russian won his second title of the year after his opponent, Tallon Griekspoor, had to withdraw from the final due to a last-minute injury. While many considered this win to be lucky, the veteran proved himself again at the Indian Wells Open.

Even Alcaraz admitted that Medvedev played “unreal” tennis during their semi-final clash that ended up being one-sided for the most part.

Carlos Alcaraz heaps praise on Daniil Medvedev after the defeat

“First of all, I just have to give credit to Daniil. I think he just played an amazing match. Since the start of the match until the end of the match, you know, the match he was playing unreal, I gotta say. I have never seen, to be honest, playing Daniil like this. He deserves completely the win today. He deserves completely to get through and playing a final here. All I can say is just congratulations to him” he said after the match.

Alcaraz then explained what went wrong for him during the encounter and expressed disappointment over not being able to hold on to his serve.

“From my side, I just played a few games mostly in the first set that I just let go of my serve game, and part of that, I was just running all the time against him. So it was tough for me, but, you know, just proud to see that I just fought until the last ball.”

By knocking out Carlos Alcaraz, Medvedev has now set up a clash against Jannik Sinner in the final, who had defeated Alexander Zverev 6-2, 6-4 in the semis. The Italian also hasn’t dropped a set in the competition so far and will be hoping to maintain that record in the final.

With the highly anticipated final all set to take place on Sunday, who do you think will lift the Indian Wells title? Let us know in the comments!