After a tough season in 2025, Daniil Medvedev remembered who he was and his potential and returned in 2026 to conquer everything and everyone. He stepped in to answer the question, ‘Who will end Carlos Alcaraz’s unbeaten streak this year?’ by ending his Indian Wells campaign in the semifinals.
During the post-match press conference, Medvedev talked more about this win and whether it is a generational statement when a reporter mentioned the 2017 NextGen ATP Finals in Milan.
Daniil Medvedev Talks About His Win Over Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells
The Russian defeated the Spaniard 6-3, 7-6(3) on Saturday, March 14, on Court 1 of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to reach the championship match of the ATP Masters 1000 event. This victory meant Alcaraz is no longer unbeaten this year, with a 16-1 record following this semifinal clash with Medvedev.
A reporter mentioned the Russian being “part of the original NextGen, Milan, nine years ago” and asked whether this “win is a generational statement, reminding everyone that they are still competitive on tour, beating No. 1s.” Medvedev, being a person who focuses on his gameplay more than anything else, gave an honest answer, saying,
“No, I don’t care too much about the things, because I’m already, first of all, a bit too old. I’m not NextGen anymore.” He then brought perspective to the conversation, discussing his performance in the previous season.
“I had a tough year last year, so even more perspective now, I need to do my best, and that’s kind of it, because Jannik and Carlos, far better than all of us you mentioned. Only one match we can beat them. Sascha was serving for the match in Australia, and you never know what would happen in the final if he won,” Medvedev added.
Instead of focusing on just one match, he acknowledged the level of the top two players in the world, comparing them with the Big Three. “They are so good, they are so much better than us. And Djokovic, Federer, Nadal were so much better than us,” he said, while putting things in comparison between the Golden Era and the current era.
Medvedev said, “But Djokovic, Nadal, and Jannik and Carlos are probably also better than all the ones that were there before. And they would struggle against them. It is what it is,” talking about how the level of tennis has improved in the past few years.
The Russian concluded, “As I said on the court, maybe I play 10 matches against Carlos, probably I’m going to lose more than I’m gonna win. But whenever I go on court, I need to believe in myself, I need to do my best, and try to win as much as I can,” concluding the conversation on a positive note.
When Medvedev stepped foot on the court, he only had one goal in mind: defeating Alcaraz and reaching the final. However, it wasn’t so simple for the Spaniard, who might have had multiple things going on in the back of his head: being World No. 1, the 16-0 unbeaten record, two-time champion, the possibility of making another final, and many more.
Given his young age of just 22, all these reasons might have led to pressure on him and to his first straight-set loss since the 2025 ATP Finals against Jannik Sinner.
The Indian Wells Semifinal Clash Between Medvedev and Alcaraz
Medvedev entered the match with all odds against him, but he entered the match with the strongest weapon in tennis: determination. He had a losing 2-6 head-to-head record against the Spaniard in their previous eight clashes; he only had about an 18% chance of defeating Alcaraz, according to PFSN’s exclusive interactive simulator.
But he defied all those odds to emerge victorious, reminding everyone why he was the first person outside of Big Four to reach the World No. 1 position in nearly 20 years.
He broke Alcaraz in the fourth game and went on to take a 4-1 lead, later finishing the set 6-3 in just 35 minutes. The Spaniard refused to give up in the second set as he started pushing, breaking Medvedev in the fourth game, but the Russian immediately replied with a break himself, with both players holding serve to force a tiebreak.
In the tiebreak, Alcaraz started by winning a point on his own serve, but then Medvedev caught pace and won six consecutive points to reach 6-1 in the tiebreak. The World No. 1 saved two match points after this but could not stop the Russian, who ultimately prevailed 6-3, 7-6(3) in just under 100 minutes.
Looking at the match statistics, Medvedev did not perform significantly better than Alcaraz; in fact, in some categories, the Spaniard was way ahead of his opponent. But efficiency is where the Russian took the match.
He landed four aces during the match, serving out the match with an unplayable ace in the tiebreak, without committing any double faults. He also committed many fewer unforced errors than Alcaraz (22 compared to 30) while winning 53% of the total points to emerge victorious.
Medvedev also took revenge for the 2023 and 2024 losses to Alcaraz, in which the Spaniard defeated him twice consecutively to become a two-time champion. The Russian now faces World No. 2 Sinner in the championship match on Sunday, March 15, with a 19% chance of lifting his first title at Tennis Paradise and becoming the youngest player to win all Masters 1000 titles on hard courts.
