All right, it’s time for a quick update on the happenings at the Indian Wells 2024 men’s tennis tournament.
Raphael Nadal (37, 🇪🇸) had actually withdrawn from the tournament before it even started, simply stating that he was not physically ready to play again at the highest level. Will he play French Open in May? We don’t know.
World No 1 Novak ‘No Vac’ Djokovic (36, 🇷🇸) was back for the first time in four years, only to fall to ‘lucky loser’ Luca Nardi (20, 🇮🇹) in the third round.
(A lucky loser is a player given a spot in the main draw even though he lost in the final round of the qualifying tournament).
Daniil Medvedev (28, His Country Invaded Ukraine— but not his fault) and Holger Rune (20, 🇩🇰) are the likeliest from the top half of the draw to make it to the final on Sunday.
In the bottom half it will be Indian Wells 2023 champ Alcaraz (20, 🇪🇸), Jannik Sinner (22, 🇮🇹) and Alexander Zverev (26, 🇩🇪) battling it out for a spot in the final.
Update Sun 3/19: It was Alcaraz vs. Medvedev in the Men’s Final, with Alcaraz winning 6-3, 6-2.
After today’s win against Fábián Marozsán (24, Hungary), he wrote ‘TUDUM’ on the camera lens with his marker, and I looked up the word in vain on Google Translate. But no, it’s not a Spanish word. It’s an international onomatopoeia slang term, derived from the double chime as Netflix starts up. Apparently it means ‘Stay Tuned’.
[Picture posted by Carlos Alcaraz @carlosalcaraz on X].