Daniil Medvedev defeats Frances Tiafoe to reach Indian Wells final, winning streak now at 19

Daniil Medvedev kept his hot streak going in the desert on Saturday, defeating Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals of Indian Wells, 7-5, 7-6 (4), to extend his incredible winning streak to 19 matches in a row.

The Russian, who captured three titles in three weeks coming into Indian Wells—at Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai—is now a win away from his fifth Masters 1000 title, and the 19th ATP title of his career.

After 10 straight holds to start the match, Medvedev finally broke the pattern in Tiafoe’s 5-all service game, converting his fourth break point of the day with a reflex forehand pass to go up 6-5. He then served the set out at love, clinching it on a missed Tiafoe forehand.

Medvedev continued to apply the pressure, breaking again straight away in the first game of the second set on a sensational forehand passing shot that just clipped the line, and the two held from there until Tiafoe found himself serving to stay in the match at 3-5.

But there were still so many twists to come.

First, Tiafoe fought off three match points in that 3-5 game, held for 4-5 and broke for the first time in the match to even it up at 5-all. Medvedev broke at love in the next game for a chance to serve for the match again, and even had another four match points, but Tiafoe saved all of those, too, and pushed it to a tie-break.

Medvedev opened up a 5-1 lead in the breaker, though, and eventually closed the match out on his eighth match point.

“It was crazy at the end,” Medvedev said. “I got super tight. At 6-5, 40-0, I think I got tight at deuce where I was like, ‘Oh my god that’s a lot of opportunities missed, this could go not well for me.’ I still managed to continue playing good, then in the tie-break I was up 5-1 and serving and trying to make it 6-1 with five match points, then 5-4.

“It was crazy. To finish with an ace was a relief.”

Medvedev finished the match with more than twice as many winners as unforced errors, 30 to 12, including a bigger-than-three-to-one ratio off the forehand (16 winners to 5 unforced errors).

The Russian is now a win away from tying his longest winning streak.

He won 20 matches in a row from 2020 to 2021, winning his last 10 matches of 2020 (capturing titles at Paris and the ATP Finals) and his first 10 matches of 2021 (going 4-0 in ATP Cup play and then reaching the Australian Open final, where he fell to Novak Djokovic).

This will be the seventh Masters 1000 final of Medvedev’s career—he has a 4-2 record in his first six finals at this level, and if he wins he’ll have won five different Masters 1000 events in his career.

MEDVEDEV IN MASTERS 1000 FINALS (4-2):
2019 Canada final: l. to Nadal, 6-3, 6-0
2019 Cincinnati final: d. Goffin, 7-6 (3), 6-4
2019 Shanghai final: d. Zverev, 6-4, 6-1
2020 Paris final: d. Zverev, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
2021 Canada final: d. Opelka, 6-4, 6-3
2021 Paris final: l. to Djokovic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
[2023 Indian Wells final: TBD]

He has an overall 18-12 career record in tour-level finals.