It did prove to be a difficult tournament to turn around after the two ATP Semi Finals were split 1-1, but that does not mean we move past the last day of the Indian Wells Masters.
The two Finals are both scheduled to be played on the day and both look like they could be very enjoyable for the neutrals tuning in.
A repeat of the Women's Australian Open Final and a Men's Final featuring two of the very best hard court players in the world can only be a positive and my thoughts can be read below.
Aryna Sabalenka - 1.5 games v Elena Rybakina: A repeat of the Australian Open Final will be played in the Indian Wells Final and both Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina have put together strong runs here.
Out of the two players, Aryna Sabalenka has been producing the higher level of tennis, but she has also struggled to get the better of this opponent.
In the last nine hard court matches between the pair, it is Elena Rybakina who has won seven times including in Melbourne in January. They met three times on the hard courts in 2025 and Rybakina won two of those, while the sole meeting in Indian Wells was also won in the Final by the World Number 3 in 2023.
All of that will give her a lot of confidence, but Aryna Sabalenka will feel she was very unfortunate to lose the Australian Open Final and the performances so far in the Indian Wells conditions will give her confidence in turning that form around. She has found it very difficult to read the Rybakina serve, but it was the World Number 1 who had more Break Points in the defeat in Melbourne and that is another reason Sabalenka can believe she has the game to get the better of this rival.
Aryna Sabalenka has been the much stronger server so far this week and she can certainly contain much of the threat from the World Number 3, although there is always that mental pressure to deal with.
That comes from the fact she has lost so many recent matches against Elena Rybakina, but the latter has not been nearly as impressive as the top Seed. That is not to say that Elena Rybakina has played poorly, but the wins have been in more competitive matches, even if that can sometimes be a help rather than a hindrance.
Both players should produce some good tennis in this Final, but the narrow edge is rightly with Aryna Sabalenka and she may just pick up a big title that gives her momentum to carry into the clay court season after a stop in Miami later this month.
Jannik Sinner - 4.5 games v Daniil Medvedev: The win over Carlos Alcaraz will have given Daniil Medvedev a huge amount of confidence and has also maintained what has been a really strong run of form being produced by the World Number 11.
He now takes aim at winning back to back titles and arguably the biggest one anyone can win outside of the Grand Slams when competing for the Indian Wells trophy.
Daniil Medvedev served really well in the Semi Final win and he is going to have to do the same if he is going to put together a rare tournament in which a player beats the top two players in the world in back to back matches.
Beating Carlos Alcaraz means Daniil Medvedev is more than capable of winning this Final, but there will be a lot of respect for the way Jannik Sinner is playing and the World Number 2 produced a dominant win over Alexander Zverev in the Semi Final.
No one is going to be surprised to read that Jannik Sinner has been serving well, but it is the aggressive performance on the return that has proved to be the key to the Italian reaching his first Final of the 2026 season. This week Sinner has broken in almost 40% of return games played and dealing with the very solid Alexander Zverev serve will mean he is not intimidated by what Daniil Medvedev can produce.
Jannik Sinner began his career by losing the first six matches against Daniil Medvedev, but he has now won eight of the last nine matches, including the last three in a row.
Eight wins in a row have been produced on the hard courts and Jannik Sinner would have covered what looks like a big line in the last four hard court matches played in a best of three set format.
During this eight match winning run on the hard courts, Jannik Sinner has held 90% of his service games compared with Daniil Medvedev's 75% mark and that is a significant difference.
Respect has to be given to Daniil Medvedev for the current level being produced, but it is still a little short of the standard being set by Jannik Sinner and the latter can win the Indian Wells title with a solid looking success on the scoreboard.
MY PICKS: Aryna Sabalenka - 1.5 Games @ 1.80 William Hill (1 Unit)
Jannik Sinner - 4.5 Games @ 2.10 William Hill (1 Unit)
Indian Wells Update: 12-14, - 3.98 Units (26 Units Staked, - 15.31% Yield)
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