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Sinner seals maiden Indian Wells title, Sabalenka ends hoodoo with epic win over Rybakina
Indian Wells: World number two Jannik Sinner surged home to beat Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4) on Sunday to capture his first Indian Wells ATP Masters 1000 crown.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Sinner won his first title of 2026, rallying from 0-4 down in the second-set tiebreaker to seal the win against a resurgent Medvedev, winner of the title in Dubai last month who was riding a nine-match ATP winning streak.
That included an upset semi-final triumph over Carlos Alcaraz that ended the top-ranked Spaniard’s 16-match winning streak to start the season.
But Sinner, who didn’t drop a set in the tournament, proved just that bit better in a match where both sets went to the tiebreakers without a break of serve.
“I kept believing and kept pushing,” Sinner said of his closing burst. “I went for my shots a little more. A third set, we would have started even, so I tried my best to close it out and I am very happy.
“It was an incredible ending.”
Sinner didn’t face a break point in the one-hour 55-minute contest, winning 43 of the 47 points on which he put his first serve in play.
Medvedev saved the only two break points he faced in the seventh game of the opening set, but Sinner’s tiebreaker prowess proved too much.
Medvedev was up 5-4 in the first-set tiebreaker when he let a ball sail by him and it landed in.
He’d go on to save one set point, but Sinner gave himself another with a blistering forehand that the Russian couldn’t handle and pocketed the set with a thundering service winner.
Medvedev looked on track to level the match when he raced to a 4-0 lead in the second-set decider — aided by Sinner’s second double-fault of the match.
But Sinner roared home to join Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer as the only players to win all six of the ATP’s hardcourt Masters 1000 tournaments.
Medvedev, who lost to Alcaraz in the Indian Wells finals in 2023 and 2024, missed his chance to become just the second player to beat both Alcaraz and Sinner in the same tournament.
But the former world number one underscored his return to form after a disappointing 2025 campaign and will return to the top 10 on Monday.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka finally conquered her Indian Wells demons on Sunday, defeating Elena Rybakina 3-6 6-3 7-6(6) in a breathless final to claim the desert title for the first time and secure her 23rd career crown.
The victory was sweet redemption for the Belarusian, who had lost her previous two Indian Wells finals, including to Rybakina herself in 2023, and had begun the year with a defeat to the Kazakh 26-year-old in the Australian Open final in January.
Rybakina, a two-time Grand Slam champion, dominated the opening exchanges of the first set, breaking Sabalenka to surge into a 4-2 lead and exploiting the Belarusian’s backhand to close it out.It was the first time Sabalenka had dropped a set in the tournament.
The second set began no more comfortably, with Sabalenka letting out an audible yell as Rybakina broke her in the opening game. But the four-time Grand Slam champion dug deep, responding with a love hold to level at 1-1, and gradually turned the tide.
A second break in the fourth game gave Sabalenka a commanding 4-1 lead, and although Rybakina pressed, the Belarusian’s intensity proved too much, as she took the set with four aces and conceded nine unforced errors to Rybakina’s 13.
The decider was a match in itself. Sabalenka broke early to lead 3-1, only for Rybakina to claw back, level at 5-5 and take the lead for the first time in the set. Sabalenka responded immediately to force a tiebreak, where the score reached 6-6 before she pulled clear to seal it 8-6.
With that final point, Sabalenka dropped to her knees – the relief of a champion who had waited three years and endured three finals to finally get her hands on the trophy.
“I want to congratulate Elena. I know we’ll face each other many more times,” Sabalenka said before receiving the trophy. “Thanks to everyone who made this tournament possible – it is truly a tennis paradise. I’m always happy to come here every year, and thank God I got this trophy.”
The win caps an extraordinary week for the 27-year-old, who arrived in the Coachella Valley having recently got engaged to her Brazilian fiancee Georgios Frangulis.
“This is a dream come true. I want to thank my team for always being there, and my fiancee – what a week! Getting a puppy, getting engaged, and winning a title. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life,” she added.
With their rivalry set to define the women’s game for years to come, Sabalenka now has the edge with a 9-7 head-to-head lead. Both players are separated by one ranking place – Rybakina’s run to the final will lift her to number two in next week’s rankings.
Agencies
