Carlos Alcaraz looks to emulate Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic with rare Indian Wells feat
Five men have won the Indian Wells Open three times or more, but only two men have managed to lift the trophy in three consecutive years at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
Unsurprisingly, the two men to win a hat-trick of titles are members of the Big Three with Roger Federer the first to achieve the feat before Novak Djokovic joined him on the list more than a decade later.
The two tennis greats are also joint-record holders for most Indian Wells titles won as they have five trophies each.
Carlos Alcaraz is currently one of 11 men to win two more titles in the first leg of the Sunshine Double and he is aiming to join Federer and Djokovic on the exclusive list of players to win three in a row following his successes in 2023 and 2024.
Asked about possibly achieving the rate feat, the four-time Grand Slam winner stated: “I know that this is something that only two players have done in the history, I think.
“So I’m here to take, I mean, to take that pressure, let’s say. I will try not to think about it. I will try just to enjoy it. Because this tournament, every time that I come here, I enjoy so much, you know, practicing, playing.
“Everything for me here is so easy. So all I’m thinking is to enjoy this tournament. I’m waiting the whole year just to come back here.
“So I will try not to think about it. Just flow and see how it’s going to be, the tournament. But it is something that for me would be great to achieve.”
The Spaniard beat Daniil Medvedev in both finals as he won 6–3, 6–2 in 2023 and followed it up with a 7–6 (7–5), 6–1 title defence last year.
Besides Federer and Djokovic, Jimmy Connors, Michael Chang and Rafael Nadal are the other men to win three titles, but their trophies were not won in consecutive years.
Roscoe Tanner, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt are the others to have won the tournament twice.
The 2 men to win Indian Wells Open hat-tricks:
Roger Federer – 2004-2006
Roscoe Tanner was the first man to win two in a row, but he was denied a hat-trick in 1981 as he lost in the quarter-finals.
So the first hat-trick feat was achieved by Federer with his first title coming in 2004 when he defeated Andre Agassi in the semi-final and Tim Henman in the final.
The following year, Federer didn’t lose a single set en route to the title as he got the better of Hewitt in three sets in the final (it was a best-of-five set final) before he completed his hat-trick with victory over James Blake in the showpiece match.
The Swiss won his fourth title in 2014 and then appeared in three finals in a row from 2017-2019 but only won the 2017 title – beating Stan Wawrinka in the final – while he finished runner-up to Juan Martin del Potro and Dominic Thiem in the next two editions.
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Novak Djokovic – 2014-2016
The great Djokovic won his first title in California in 2008 when he defeated Mardy Fish in the final while title No 2 arrived three years later with victory over Rafael Nadal.
His hat-trick run started in 2014 when he beat Federer 3–6, 6–3, 7–6 (7–3) in the best-of-three-set final and he again got the better of his Swiss rival the following year with the match also going the distance.
Djokovic completed his feat in 2016 when he beat Nadal in the semi-final and Milos Raonic in the final.
His unbeaten streak was ended by Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round of the 2017 tournament and, interestingly, he hasn’t reached a final since 2016.
