Indian Wells always marks a special season in the tennis calendar. For the men, this is the first and biggest Masters of the year, for the women it is the first and biggest Premier Mandatory.
And both tours collide, first in the California desert and then immediately in the Florida everglades for its Miami sibling. Men and women share court-time, practice courts and press conference rooms, in the biggest jamboree in tennis outside the Majors.
Yes, these two back-to-back mini-Majors fill March to pose one of the toughest challenges in this sport. To win the ‘Sunshine Double’, a seeded player has to win at least a dozen matches in the space of three weeks—for unseeded players, make that 14 matches.
And the rewards reflect the endeavour: for each singles winner, an eye-watering $1,340,860. But it is not just for its prize money that the BNP Paribas Open has earned acclaim and the love of the players—voted the ATP Masters and WTA Premier Mandatory of the year for the last four years.
For the magnificent setting of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden cannot fail to thrill. Located just outside Palm Springs on the edge of the Santa Rosa mountains, it is a painting of deepest blues and greens, from the lush lawns to the vibrant courts to the vivid cloudless sky.
No wonder this oasis in the desert is such a high-spot in the calendar, and no wonder it will pack more than 16,000 into the biggest permanent arena in tennis outside the US Open, in day and night sessions, for 14 straight days.
This year, however, it will be notable for two particular champions making a return to the big stage after long breaks—both unseeded.
Williams and Azarenka back to court
Mothers both, former Indian Wells champions both, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka will hope to set some solid groundwork for the coming season with their first appearances in Indian Wells in two years.
Last year, Azarenka was still on maternity leave, returned to play just two events on grass, and was then forced off the tour as she faced a custody battle for her son.
And last year, Williams withdrew after having won her 23rd Major in Australia while almost two months pregnant. She went on to have her daughter in September, but subsequently had life-threatening complications. Even so, Williams has already put a toe in the water in Fed Cup and in Tie Break Tens in New York.
But some extra drama comes from her draw: No53 Zarina Diyas could be followed by No29 seed Kiki Bertens—and then a possible meeting with the No8 seed, her sister Venus, 17 years after their first contest—in Indian Wells.
Drama for Azarenka, too, who has drawn Heather Watson in a replay of their third-round showdown at Wimbledon, which Azarenka edged 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. The former No1 could then face reigning US Open champion, Sloane Stephens.
Neither Williams nor Azarenka might carry great hopes of winning so big and so soon, but who might reasonably harbour such hopes?
Top seeds Halep and Wozniacki vie for No1
In the last year, with Williams off the scene, no fewer than five other women rose to No1, and two of them are among the handful who have won in the desert before: Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki.
It is Halep who clinched the No1 seeding in the desert, and she has had a wonderful season thus far, 14-1, though her only loss was to Wozniacki in the Australian Open final. The Dane has a 15-3 record, and if she wins the title, she could reclaim the top spot. However, if Halep reaches the final, she will retain No1.
Can Kerber and Muguruza take on the rest?
Among the others who briefly rose to No1 last year, two in particular might fancy their chances in the desert. Angelique Kerber has already produced some great form this year, was unbeaten at the Hopman Cup, won Sydney, and made the semis at the Australian Open and in Dubai. She is 15-3 (not counting the Hopman Cup) on the season.
Garbine Muguruza, No3 seed, won the Wimbledon title on her way to No1. The elegant Spaniard can blow hot and cold, but when she’s on, she is formidable. A moderate start to 2018 was lifted by a final run in Doha, and her last big title came on the similar North American courts of Cincinnati, where she beat the two top seeds.
She does have a taxing draw, however: wild card Eugenie Bouchard in Round 2, and another dangerous unseeded former champion, Maria Sharapova, a possible in third round.
Eyes on Svitolina and Kvitova
Two of the biggest winners so far this year could justifiably be tips for the title.
Elina Svitolina, after racking up five titles last year—including big Premiers in Dubai, Rome and Toronto—and challenging for the No1 ranking, has started 2018 in similar style. She already has the Premier titles in Brisbane and Dubai, reached the quarters of the Australian Open, and last night, she even picked up the quarter-million-dollar title in the exhibition knock-out event, Tie-Break-Tens.
She looks set to hit her 300th match-win with a straight-forward early draw, but deeper in, she has Madison Keys, Julia Goerges and the Williams.
Like Svitolina, Petra Kvitova has two titles and a 14-2 tally this season —and she went on a 13-0 streak through Doha and St Petersburg. In the process, she racked up a season-leading six wins over top-10 opponents.
This time last year, she was still recovering from surgery to her stabbed playing hand, and at the start of this year she was ranked 29. She is now back inside the top 10 herself for the first time in almost two years. Should she make it to the quarters, however, she could hit the survivor from that deadly Muguruza/Sharapova/Agnieszka Radwanska section, followed by Halep in the semis.
Previous champions in draw: Elena Vesnina (defending), Halep, Wozniacki, Serena Williams (twice), Azarenka (twice), Sharapova (twice)
Youngest: Amanda Anisimova, 16
Oldest: Venus Williams, 37
Wild cards: Bouchard, Azarenka, Caroline Dolehide, Claire Lui, Kayla Day, Sofya Zhuk, Danielle Collins (OCS), Amanda Anisimova (OCS) [OCS=Oracle Challenger Series]
Missing potential seeds: Peng Shuai (knee), Lucie Safarova (illness), Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (shoulder)
Title winners so far in 2018: Svitolina (x2), Halep, Goerges, Kerber, Elise Mertens, Wozniacki, Kvitova (x2), Timea Babos, Alison van Uytvanck, Lesia Tsurenko
[NB all 32 seeds have bye in Round 1, so first match is Round 2]
Top half
No1 seed Halep quarter
R2, Kristyna Pliskova or qualifier
R3, first seed, No30 Dominika Cibulkova
R4, No22 Mertens or No14 Kristina Mladenovic
QF, No11 Johanna Konta, No19 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No25 Barbora Strycova, No6 Jelena Ostapenko
SF, No3 Muguruza and No5 Karolina Pliskova are top seeds
No3 seed Muguruza quarter
R2, Bouchard or qualifier
R3, first seed, No31 Radwanska (Sharapova alternate)
R4, No17 Coco Vandeweghe or No16 Ashleigh Barty
QF, No9 Kvitova, No23, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No32 Shuai Zhang, No5 Pliskova
SF, No1 Halep and No3 Muguruza are top seeds
Bottom half
No4 seed Svitolina quarter
R2, Mona Barthel or Veronica Cepede Royg
R3, first seed, No27 Carla Suarez Navarro
R4, No15 Madison Keys or No18 Magdalena Rybarikova
QF, No12 Goerges, No21 Anastasija Sevastova, No29 Bertens, No8 Venus Williams
SF, No2 Wozniacki and No7 Caroline Garcia are top seeds
No2 seed Wozniacki quarter
R2, Tsurenko or qualifier
R3, first seed, No28 Anett Kontaveit
R4, No20 Daria Kasatkina or No13 Stephens
QF, No7 Garcia, No26 Daria Gavrilova, No24 Vesnina, No10 Kerber
SF, No4 Svitolina and No8 Venus Williams are top seeds