Top Seeded Iga Swiatek Takes BNP Paribas Open Women's Singles Title

PALM DESERT, CA — Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland won the BNP Paribas Open women's singles final Sunday, beating ninth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4, 6-0, winning the final eight games of the 68-minute match.

Swiatek broke Sakkari's serve five times and lost only five points in the second set at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Swiatek won all six of her matches in straight sets en route to her second BNP Paribas Open title, losing just 21 games overall.

"I'm really proud of myself," Swiatek said. "I'm super happy. I mean, even though this tournament looked like, the scores, maybe I had everything under control, it wasn't from the beginning to the end so easy. So I'm happy I could improve during the tournament. I felt really good on the last two matches, big amount of confidence.

"I would say at the beginning of the tournament I felt like I didn't have much luck with the draw. I played opponents that sometimes I struggled with. I lost against Linda (Noskova) in Australia this year.

"Then I was pretty stressed actually before facing Caroline Wozniacki (in the quarterfinals), because I felt like we haven't played in a while. I didn't really know how her game feels on my racquet. I just have huge respect for her. This was the kind of match where I had to kind of work through the stress.

"But then after that I just felt like I could actually play my game more freely."

Swiatek earned $1.1 million for her second Women's Tennis Association tournament victory of the year and 19th of her career. She also won the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in February.

Sakkari received $585,000. She was seeking her third WTA title and first since the Guadalajara Open in September.

Swiatek has been first in the WTA singles rankings since Nov. 6. Sakkari is ranked ninth.

The victory improved Swiatek's record in singles play at the BNP Paribas Open to 18-2. Her .900 winning percentage is the best in the history of the Indian Wells' women's event, which was first held in 1989, surpassing Steffi Graf's .895.

It was a rematch of the 2022 BNP Paribas Open women's final, also won by Swiatek, 6-4, 6-1, and the first meeting between the two since then. The women have split their six career matches.

On the men's side, second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz completed a successful defense of his BNP Paribas Open singles title, defeating fourth-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev, 7-6, 6-1 in one hour, 42 minutes.

"It means a lot to me, lifting this trophy, winning this tournament, because I overcome a lot of problems in my head, a lot of problems physically," said Alcaraz.

During the trophy presentation, the Spaniard said, "It's amazing coming back here, playing in such a beautiful court and I am enjoying every time I come here."

"I enjoy playing so much in front of you," Alcaraz told the crowd. `So much energy. I felt the love since the first day until Sunday ... thanks to the energy you bring to me, I could show my best tennis.

This was the second time in the tournament's history that the same men have met in the final in consecutive years. The other time was in 2014 and 2015 when Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer on both occasions.

Alcaraz is the tournament's first defending men's champion to reach the final since Federer in 2017. He is the first man to win at least two BNP Paribas Open singles titles in a row since Djokovic won three straight from 2014-16.

Alcaraz earned $1.1 million for his first title since Wimbledon in July. Medvedev received $585,000 as the runner-up.