Holder Swiatek could begin Indian Wells title defence against Garcia

Defending champion Iga Swiatek, who is aiming to become the first woman to win Indian Wells three times, could see a tricky opener against France’s Caroline Garcia as the draw is out for the WTA Tour’s third WTA 1000 event of the year.

Main-draw play begins on Wednesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The first round will be played across the first two days of the tournament. The Top-32 seeds have received first-round byes.

Swiatek, who leads the fourth quarter of the draw, received the first-round bye and could play the Frenchwoman Garcia, who opens against Bernarda Pera. Tunisian star Ons Jabeur could be waiting in the third round.

Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, who will be reunited with her coach Pere Riba, could face two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in the second round.

Top seed Sabalenka leads the first quarter and will open against either Austin finalist McCartney Kessler or Anna Blinkova.

Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Emma Navarro, and Anisimova have all landed in the second quarter of the draw. It is Keys’ first tournament since winning the Australian Open in January.

Gauff will face either 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu or Moyuka Uchijima in the second round. Anisimova could face a particularly tough opener if Abu Dhabi champion Bencic gets past Tatjana Maria in the first round.

Jessica Pegula leads the third quarter along with 2023 champion Rybakina and Dubai champion Andreeva.

The third quarter also features 2018 champion and former No. 1 Osaka, who will be playing her first tournament since the Australian Open, where she retired from her third-round match against Bencic with an abdominal injury.

Osaks is drawn a quality opponent in Colombia’s Camila Osorio. The winner of that match will face Dubai finalist Clara Tauson.

Djokovic, Alcaraz on collision course: Carlos Alcaraz could run into Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final stage in his quest for a rare Indian Wells ‘three-peat.’ Djokovic beat the Spaniard to reach the Australian Open semi-final in January and is hoping he can become only the third man to claim 100 career singles titles.

The Serb, who got a first-round bye, will hope to have put recent injury concerns behind him as he kicks off his campaign at the 1000-level event against a qualifier or Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios.

Agencies