2023 BNP Paribas Open Recap

Oftent coined the 5^th Grand Slam, the 2023 BNP Paribas Open, provided fans with two weeks of must watch tennis action. Thus, with the gates finally closing and the champions taking home their crowns, we’ll take time to reflect on the Open’s most exciting moments. Looking at both Elena Rybakina’s and Carlos Alcaraz’s spectacular run to their finals and also, some of the notable takeaways from the overall performance of all the players here in the desert.

Familiar First-Timers

If there is one trait that Elena Rybakina and Carlos Alcaraz share, it is consistency. With both players coming off of breakout performances in 2022, neither has yet to show signs of slowing it down.

In the case of Rybakina she enters the tournament fresh of her run to the 2023 Australian Open finals. And after losing a heartbreaker to Aryna Sabalenka, one would expect this result to have a lasting effect on her game. And for a moment it did, as she struggled to put up results in her following two tournaments. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that for the current world no. 7  she saves her best tennis for the biggest stages, as she put up a diminant display during her title run here in Indian Wells.

Cruising through her first three rounds in straights sets. Rybakina would ultimately face her toughest challenge in the quarterfinals. Squaring off against Karolina Muchova, the Czech players unique game style and ability to mix pace and speed of shot proved to be quite troublesome for Rybakina’s aggressive baseline play.  After splitting sets, Rybakina would squeak by with the victory as she showed the true depth of her game, imparting not only her trusted aggressive baseline tactics  and dominate first serve, but also, utilizing her touch and speed moving forward to run away with the win.

Moving onto the semifinals, she would face a resurging Iga Swiatek. Yet the Polish player would simply be no match for Rybakina on this day she would lose quite quickly in two very straight forward and uncontested sets.

Now in the finals, Elena would face an all too familiar foe as she was set to play current Australian Open champion and budding rival Aryan Sabalenka. Yet, unlike in Melbourne, momentum was seemingly on Rybakina’s side

Winning in two very tight sets Rybakina would beat Sabalenka for first time ever in her careers. A superb ending for one of the games fastest rising stars.

Now for Carlos Alcaraz there really is much to say, other than that this is one really special kid. Going into the tournament as the number 1 seed, a great performance was of course going to be expected of the young Spanish star. However, no one could have predicted the outstanding quality of said performance during his time at this year’s BNP Paribas Open. Alcaraz was seemingly able to overpower multiple future stars of the tour in route to the title including likes of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jannik Sinner.

Yet his most shocking performance would come in the finals. Facing Daniil Medvedev, who at the time was on a 19-match win streak, Alcaraz easily dismantled him in straight sets, in what would be a very one-sided final.

Now what made Carlos such a tough opponent not only here in Indian Wells, but throughout all of 2022, is that he has become a true master of an all-court game. The ability to strike heavy from the baseline, glide across the court with ease, and ultimately move to the net and finish with either brute force or soft touch, makes him an almost impenetrable force on the tour. Thus, with a game that is  already so developed this early in his career, touting him as one of the sports next “greats” is truly a plausible case to make.

Major Takeaways

 Though 1000 level tournaments on both the ATP and WTA tour are significant in terms of their overall implications, very rarely do they outweigh the effects of the results of the Grand Slams. Yet given the unique nature of this years tournament, Indians Wells has seemingly set a foundation of what the tennis world may look like in the coming years.  

For the ATP tour this is the first major tournament where none of the “Big Three” participated, thus it gave the tennis world a glimpse as though what the tour may look like upon the retirement of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. But after the week’s performance it is hard to make a definitive answer as to what men’s tennis may eventually become.

When you look at Indian Wells from its later stages, especially from Round of 16 and beyond, many of the players who fans would have expected to be their simply did not make it. But this is not necessarily a bad thing for the tour, as it simply shows an overall widening of the field as the talent is now spread more evenly amongst its players. Now of course, this in turn leaves more and more opportunity for newer faces to emerge to the fore front of the sport, an aspect that it definitely has been missing since the ongoing and unrelenting dominance of the “Big Three”.

And, while the ATP begins it slow shift away from its beloved “Big Three”, the WTA is on the precipice of gaining its very own. For women’s tennis though there have always been moments where one, or at a time even two, players dominate the field, there never has really been a singular group running the tour for consecutive seasons. Now one could make the argument that the last time the WTA had potential for establishing its own “Big Three” was in 2012 when Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Victoria Azarenka, topped the rankings, with each player taking home at least one grand slam title and Olympic medal that year. But by the end of 2014 this budding “Big Three” had already begun to fizzle out leaving the tour once again without a signature group of talented stars.

However, it seems as though the WTA may get another chance at establishing its own signatures trio, as Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Elena Rybakina have not only put up astounding result at this year’s Indian Wells Open, but throughout course of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. A monumental moment for women’s tennis as it has struggled to find a consistent star to replace the likes of Williams or Sharapova. Thus by having this young group put up such consistent result it can only serve the benefit the tour as a whole, as it has the potential to consistently attract a new generation of fans to the sport.