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Alcaraz said the title drought had not bothered
him but, struggling with injury, he felt he had lost his way a
bit and was not enjoying being on court.
"It's difficult to put it into words, because I had really
difficult months," he told reporters.
"Let's say the last two months it was difficult for me to find
myself. I didn't enjoy stepping on the court. I wasn't myself on
the court the last two months, three months, so it was difficult
for me.
"It means a lot to me, lifting this trophy because I overcome a
lot of problems in my head, a lot of problems physically. It was
so special for that.
"That's why I'm really, really happy to lift this trophy,
because I found myself at this tournament, and I felt really,
really good."
Alcaraz started the year with a quarter-final exit at the
Australian Open before being knocked out in the semi-finals in
Buenos Aires and retiring from his first match in Rio de Janeiro
with an ankle injury.
"I was struggling to enjoy being on the court," he added. "My
family, my team, people close to me were telling me that I was
not smiling as much as I was doing before."
Enjoying his tennis was important to Alcaraz, he said, and
nothing was more likely to bring out his trademark grin than
winning a point with the sort of "special shot" he produced to
get past Jannik Sinner in the semis and Medvedev on Sunday.
"I always say that I'm playing better with a smile on my face,"
he said.
"And points like this one, doesn't matter if I win it or lose
it, it puts a smile on my face anyways."
The world number two said he would take a valuable lesson in
problem-solving away from Indian Wells along with the trophy and
a cheque for $1.1 million.
"It doesn't matter what problems you have. If you believe in
yourself, you have a really good team around you, you work hard,
everything can turn around," he said.
"I think that's the biggest lesson that I take from this
tournament."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney,; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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