Indian Wells: Djokovic, Alcaraz, Nadal headline entry lists ahead of next month’s event

The player entries for the 2024 BNP Paribas Open, which will take place from March 3–17 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, were unveiled on Wednesday.

The tournament will feature a star-studded field of former Indian Wells champions and up-and-coming talents.

24-time Grand Slam champion and current World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will make his Indian Wells debut seeking a record sixth title, having not played in five years. The five-time winner (2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016) holds the record for the most consecutive match wins in a tournament with his three-peat from 2014 to 2016. Djokovic was eliminated in the third round of the 2019 Indian Wells tournament in his final outing.

WTA World No. 1 Iga Swiatek will also head to Tennis Paradise vying for her second career Indian Wells title (2022) after reaching the semi-finals last year.

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and World No. 5 Elena Rybakina, the reigning winners of the BNP Paribas Open, will return to Tennis Paradise hoping to recapture the glory of their championship runs from the previous year and find their footing after both losing in the Australian Open earlier than anticipated. While Rybakina’s victory solidified her position at the top of the WTA rankings after she defeated No. 1 Swiatek and No. 2 Sabalenka in back-to-back matches, Alcaraz dazzled the desert audience last year by becoming the first man to win in Indian Wells without dropping a set since Roger Federer in 2017.

Joining them in the desert will be fan favorite and three-time Indian Wells champion Rafael Nadal (2007, 2009, 2013), who will make his return to Tennis Paradise after missing the 2023 event with injury. The 22-time Grand Slam champion will look to jumpstart his season after an injury kept him out of the Australian Open earlier this year.

2024 Australian Open champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka will arrive in the desert in peak form hoping to continue their strong starts to the 2024 season. World No. 4 Sinner fared well last year, bowing out to eventual champion Alcaraz in the semi-finals. On the WTA side, World No. 2 Sabalenka rolls into Indian Wells as arguably the player to beat fresh off her second major win and back-to-back championships at the Australian Open. Sabalenka will aim to add a first BNP Paribas Open title to her growing trophy case this March after falling just short in 2023 with a loss in the final.

Taylor Fritz, a native of Southern California, will once again be the front-runner among the best-ranked American players on the ATP Tour. In 2022, Fritz ended the American men’s trophy drought in the desert with an incredible triumph run that included an exhilarating straight-sets win over Rafael Nadal in the championship match.

Top 5 skills The goal of World No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 4 Jessica Pegula is to become the first American WTA winner in almost 20 years. Gauff, the 2023 US Open Champion, hopes to improve on her career-best performance at Indian Wells, where she made it to the quarterfinals last year. Pegula, a six-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, is hoping to win a memorable victory at home.

Daniil Medvedev, who finished second in the 2023 BNP Paribas Open and is a six-time Grand Slam finalist, is another player to keep an eye on. Other notable players include Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune, Hubert Hurkacz, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who finished second in the Grand Slam final two years ago. Andy Murray, a three-time Slam champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, will also be making his 16th visit to Tennis Paradise.