Eight must-watch players at Indian Wells 2025
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We’re just days away from the start of the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells – also known as the ‘fifth Grand Slam’.
One of the highlights in the tennis calendar, this WTA and ATP 1000 event brings together the biggest stars in the game for a must-watch event for any tennis fan.
Ahead of the tournament, we breakdown eight must-watch players at Indian Wells to keep an eye on.
Jack Draper
Where else to start but British No.1 Draper. The 23-year-old Briton is currently at the highest ranking of his career at world No.12 and has been in seriously impressive form recently despite starting the season with a slight injury.
Having finished 2024 by reaching the semi-final at the US Open and winning his biggest title in Vienna, Draper kicked off the year with a career-best fourth round appearance at the Australian Open and a final in Doha.
Draper is now showing that he can consistently reach the latter stages of big tournaments and take down some of the best players in the game. The Brit has had previous success in the Californian desert, reaching the fourth round in 2023, and with a reputation building as one of the game’s strongest hard court players, Draper could be set for deep run at Indian Wells.
Emma Raducanu
Raducanu is still finding her feet this season, despite a third round run at the Australian Open and a recent victory over Maria Sakkari, but Indian Wells could be the event where everything starts to fall back into place.
The 22-year-old Brit had a promising end to last season – including three wins from three at the Billie Jean King Cup – and is working her way back to recapturing that form.
Indian Wells has always been a standout event for the former US Open champion. She’s played the tournament four times, reaching the third round or better on three occasions. Her best result came in 2023 where she knocked out two seeded players to reach the fourth round before losing to then world No.1 Iga Swiatek.
This feels like an opportunity in the season that Raducanu can thrive in, and she’ll definitely be a player that the top seeds will be hoping to avoid early on.
Raducanu recently confirmed that she will play at the HSBC Championships this summer – buy tickets
Madison Keys
The 2025 season will have felt like a dream so far for USA’s Keys. She came away from Australia with her first career Grand Slam, another WTA 500 title in Adelaide and a career-high ranking at world No.5 – not too bad…
So far this year she’s played 15 matches and won 14 and will definitely come into Indian Wells as one of the hot favourites.
In her interviews post-Australian Open she has referenced how much more relaxed she’s feeling on court and how much she’s enjoying playing and it’s really shown in her aggressive, attacking style of play that proved too much for even world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka to handle in the final.
Indian Wells will be her first tournament since the Australian Open and is one where she has previously reached the quarter-finals (2022). Can anyone stop her from clinching a first title in the desert this year?
Australian Open champion Keys is set for HSBC Championships - buy your tickets now
Jacob Fearnley
A name that will be increasingly familiar for British tennis fans is that of Fearnley – the 23-year-old rising star who has shot up inside the world’s top 100 in less than one full year on the tour.
Fearnley has continued to impress early in the season with a third round run on his Australian Open debut – including a win over Nick Kyrgios – and made his Davis Cup debut in Japan.
This year is set to be a year of many firsts for the Brit and Indian Wells will be another tournament that he will get to play for the first time. Currently set for qualifying but as one of the top main draw alternates, Fearnley has shown a fearless approach to every new experience so far in his short career. Look out for the Brit to cause a potential upset in the early rounds.
Mirra Andreeva
At just 17 years old, Andreeva is quickly becoming one of the most talked about names in tennis.
Last week she became the youngest ever player to win a WTA 1000 event in Dubai and the youngest since 2007 to break into the top 10. No other teenager even features in the WTA top 100 right now.
But her success extends back even further than that. She made the semi-finals at Roland Garros last year, has made the fourth rounds at Australian Open and Wimbledon, won her first title in Iasi last season and claimed a women’s doubles silver medal in Paris.
This level of achievement at such a young age is almost unprecedented and Andreeva will be looking to reach new heights at Indian Wells next week.
Carlos Alcaraz
Two-time defending champion, the current Roland Garros and Wimbledon title-holder, former world No.1 and 17-time ATP trophy winner – Alcaraz is a blockbuster talent who is a must-watch any time he steps on court.
A quarter-final run at the Australian Open at the start of the year was soon followed by yet another title in Rotterdam – where he defeated Alex de Minaur in the final.
Only two players have won the men’s title at Indian Wells in three consecutive years – Roger Federer (2004-2006) and Novak Djokovic (2014-2016) – could Alcaraz become the third in 2025?
Aryna Sabalenka
World No.1 Sabalenka is coming into Indian Wells with a point to prove. After missing out on a third straight Australian Open title in a final three-set thriller against Keys, Sabalenka has had early exits at the WTA 1000 events in Qatar and Dubai.
Where better to reignite her form and cement her place at the top of the rankings than at Indian Wells, a tournament she has never won, despite reaching the final in 2023.
Sabalenka will face stiff competition from a women’s field packed with strong depth – including defending champion Swiatek – but will no doubt have the bit between her teeth in California.
Joao Fonseca
The breakthrough star of 2025 – 18-year-old Fonseca has taken the world by storm so far this season with his performances in Australia and Argentina.
Off the back of winning the Canberra Challenger, Fonseca breezed through Australian Open qualifying before knocking out world No.9 Andrey Rublev in the first round.
His momentum carried over to the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires where he won his first ATP title – defeating home favourite and world No.28 Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets. He became the fourth youngest man since 2000 to win an ATP singles title after Rafael Nadal, Kei Nishikori and Alcaraz.
The young Brazilian has earned himself a wild card to make his main draw debut at Indian Wells. Tipped as one of tennis’s future stars – Fonseca is certainly one to watch.
