Carlos Alcaraz, the talented Spanish tennis player, continues to demonstrate his dominance at the Indian Wells Open by becoming the defending two-time champion of the tournament. Alcaraz achieved his fourteenth consecutive victory at a Masters 1000 by defeating Canadian Denis Shapovalov with a solid score of 6-2, 6-4, thus advancing to the round of 16.
In a court-side interview, Alcaraz mentioned: "I knew he started the season very strong, playing good tennis in Dallas and Acapulco, so I had to come on strong from the beginning of the match, focused on my tennis." From the start of the game, Alcaraz demonstrated his superiority by capitalizing on four of his eight break points and saving three of the four he faced against Shapovalov.
With this victory, the young Spanish tennis player achieved a record of 18-2 at Indian Wells, becoming the third player in the tournament's history to get 18 wins in his first 20 matches, tying with legendary figures like Jimmy Connors and Roscoe Tanner. Alcaraz expressed at the end of the match: "I understood that it was going to be a very good and difficult battle, so I am happy with the way I started."
Alcaraz's next challenge will be against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who advanced to the round of 16 by defeating veteran French player Gael Monfils in an exciting three-set match. In the women's category, Australian Open champion Madison Keys also advanced to the round of 16 after defeating Belgian Elise Mertens in a match that lasted almost 3 hours. On the other hand, young American promise Coco Gauff managed to advance to the round of 16 after defeating Greek Maria Sakkari and will face Swiss Belinda Bencic.
In other notable results, Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo advanced to the round of 16 after defeating Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp and will face Australian Alex de Minaur. Meanwhile, Chilean Alejandro Tabilo was unable to overcome local Taylor Fritz in their matchup.
