Jannik Sinner said his first Indian Wells title was the result of meticulous preparation in the heat of the Californian desert after the Italian arrived a week before the tournament began to train and acclimatise.

The world number two has sometimes struggled in hot and humid conditions, most notably when severe cramp nearly forced him to quit his Australian Open third-round match in January and when he retired in Shanghai last year.

No discomfort for Sinner at Indian Wells 

However, he showed little sign of discomfort during his 7-6(6) 7-6(4) win over Daniil Medvedev on Sunday, when the temperature approached 35 degrees Celsius shortly before the final’s scheduled start time of 2 p.m.

“It was hot but it wasn’t humid, so it makes a difference,” Sinner told reporters.

“But I’ve been here a week before the tournament started. Very similar conditions as it was today. We put in long days of practice. I felt very well prepared, so I wasn’t having issues with the weather and the heat, which is very positive for me.

“It’s all part of the process we’re trying to do and becoming the best possible athlete. We definitely do a lot of work in the gym to play at this level.”

Victory meant Sinner has now collected titles at all six ATP Masters 1000 events on hardcourts, as well as the ATP Finals, Australian Open and U.S. Open on the surface, to join an elite group also comprising Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

“I knew that this was a tournament I haven’t won, so I wanted to prepare in the best possible way, as professionally as possible,” he said.

“Having this achievement now means a lot to me. Now I have couple of days to relax … there is not so much time in between here and Miami.

“It’s again an important tournament in Miami, but we try to play the best tennis possible there too.”

Arthur Fils, Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev (Getty Images)

Dubai: The lines are blurring for today’s top tennis pros, chalk markings smudging the clean cuts of the fashion world.Arthur Fils, the 21-year-old ranked No. 34 on the ATP Tour, was recently signed by luxury fashion house Balenciaga. The talented Frenchman, who pulled out of the Dubai Duty Free tennis tournament with a strained hip, spends up to 15 minutes in front of his wardrobe deciding what to wear for dinner.“I take this, this and this and the mix always works. I’m pretty simple. I don’t go with crazy things,” he told TOI in an exclusive chat about his choices, which aren’t very different from what he does on the court. “Tennis is much more open now. More new brands are coming into the sport, we’re also signing with luxury brands. We are invited to a lot of events and there’s much more media now.”In the Carlos Alcaraz–Jannik Sinner era, forehands meet fashion collaborations, global luxury powerhouses walk alongside sports brands expanding into athleisure. The game’s new icons are not just chasing trophies; they are setting the tone for a generation that treats tennis as a vibe and lifestyle as much as grind and legacy.If the Roger Federer–Rafael Nadal–Novak Djokovic years were defined by sculpted perfection, the Alcaraz–Sinner era is about expression.Alexander Bublik, the second seed at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, points to age. He is 16 years younger than Federer and more than a decade younger than Nadal and Djokovic. Bublik, 28, ranked No. 10, was already on Tour when Alcaraz, 22, and Sinner, 24, emerged.“For me it was about looking up to them,” Bublik said of the golden generation. “We’re not friends; we are not going to be friends. With Carlos and Jannik it is a friendly relationship. Carlos is a funny guy, very, very loud. He wears crazy gear and Jannik is more style and elegance, an ice-cold approach on the court.”Bublik, who noted that these were much cooler times, as against the result-oriented stretch of the game’s golden era, said that back home in Kazakhstan or Russia, he even had movie offers.Andrey Rublev, whose unruly mop mirrors his temperament, calls it “a generational thing”.“Each generation had to contend with something,” he said. “Before Roger and Rafa, it was Sampras and Agassi; before that it was McEnroe and Borg. That was a different time, with no social media. They were doing many more things outside the court. In the time of Roger and Rafa, social media started and tennis also became more professional. Players were more kind of locked down, super professional.”“Now there’s a new generation, like the TikTok generation, so it’s just different,” the 28-year-old Russian said.Fils, for his part, admires the unapologetically expressive style of Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton.“There’s a lot of character in Lewis Hamilton’s style. When he goes anywhere, everyone looks at him because of what he’s wearing; it looks great on him. I like fashion and now I can wear a lot of cool stuff that I really like. So every time I’m going out to dinner or whatever, I try to put on something cool.”In a sport once defined by whites and restraint, self-expression is no longer a sideshow; it is part of the main event. The new generation is as comfortable fronting fashion campaigns as it is trading blows from the baseline, unafraid to let personality sit alongside performance.For the likes of Fils and his peers, style is not a distraction but a declaration. The forehand still does the talking, but increasingly, so does the fit.