FOUR past winners, including reigning champion Bianca Andreescu will line up at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The WTA 1000 event is the last major event on the calendar prior to the WTA Finals, with only a sprinkling of 250 events and one 500 left for the season. Andreescu joins two-time winners Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka at the event, as well as 2015 winner Simona Halep.

After the tournament was cancelled in 2020, Andreescu remains the reigning champion and the one who has the most to lose. Seeded 16th at the event, much like all 32 seeds, the Canadian young gun has a bye in the opening round, with an incredibly tough draw facing her. United States’ Alison Riske looms as the likely second round opponent, with the red-hot Anett Kontaveit, and top seed Karolina Pliskova also on her road to the quarter finals. Pliskova should be waiting in the fourth round for either Andreescu or Kontaveit, with clay court specialist and Roland Garros semi-finalist Nadia Podoroska the seed drawn for Pliskova’s potential third round match.

The top half of the draw has a mix of past Grand Slam winners and potential rising stars, with Garbine Muguruza coming in as the fifth seed and fresh off a title in her last start at Chicago. Muguruza looks likely to take on Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, with a potential Angelique Kerber clash in the fourth round. Clijsters is in that eighth of the draw taking on dangerous Czech Katerina Siniakova with the winner given the honour of a Kerber Round of 64 meeting. Also in that quarter is third seed Barbora Krejcikova, as well as rising talents, Coco Gauff, Paula Badosa and Camila Giorgi. US Open semi-finalist Maria Sakkari could take on 2019 Roland Garros runner-up Marketa Vondrousova in a blockbuster second round match.

Second seed Iga Swiatek is at a career-high fourth in the world, and the Polish young gun has a favourable draw. Whilst a second round clash with the unpredictable Petra Martic will not be easy, she only has Elena Rybakina inside the Top 20 in her eighth of the draw. An all-Swiss third round clash between Belinda Bencic and Jil Teichmann will continue that rivalry, whilst US Open winner Leylah Fernandez returns to the court for the first time since her stunning run. Now the teenager is seeded 23rd at the event, and she will likely player Alize Cornet in the second round, with ninth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova a likely third round opponent.

Speaking of remarkable runs, few will ever top the effort of British teenager Emma Raducanu, whose US Open title has changed her from qualifier at the Grand Slam, to 17th seed at Indian Wells. Her first match since winning at Flushing Meadows will be either Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich or rising Colombian star Maria Camila Osorio Serrano. Then, a third round clash with past winner Halep will be a sensational contest, with the winner of that clash to lock horns with either seventh seed Petra Kvitova, or Azarenka.

Meanwhile fourth seed Elina Svitolina also has a good draw, with not too many problems until either Elise Mertens or Jessica Pegula in the fourth round. Pegula still has to get past potential second round opponent Sloane Stephens to get there, with Mertens only facing a qualifier in the Round of 64. The bottom half of the draw has some of the top Next-Gen talents on the WTA Tour, whilst also having a sprinkling of past winners, and contenders.

Without the top three hard court players in Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka, it opens the draw right open, but the in-form Raducanu will be shown in a completely different light, amongst regular contenders Svitolina and Pliskova. Muguruza and Kontaveit are coming off titles at recent tournaments, while Sakkari came runner-up to Kontaveit at Ostrava, and must always be considered.

Picture credit: Tennis World USA