Indian Wells: Medvedev Is Men’s Top Seed

Indian Wells Tennis Garden
Indian Wells Tennis Garden (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

INDIAN WELLS/WASHINGTON, March 9, 2022 (by Michael Dickens)

The men’s singles draw for the 45th edition of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. was revealed at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden Tuesday afternoon. While World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and three-time 2022 titlist Rafael Nadal are among the headliners in the ATP’s first Masters 1000 event of the season – and both were drawn as the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds in the upper half of the 96-player draw – there was still some intrigue and mystery surrounding the draw.

Medvedev will face either a qualifier or Alexei Popyrin in the second round, while Nadal could oppose Sebastian Korda.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic is on the tournament entry list, and therefore was placed into the No. 2 seed in the bottom half of the draw. Like all of the seeds, he received a first-round bye and would play either David Goffin or Jordan Thompson in the second round.

However, it remains to be seen whether Djokovic, who was deported from Australia on the eve of the Australian Open for being unvaccinated and missed the year’s first major, will be allowed to enter the United States. After the draw, a tweet stated that organizers were currently in communication with his team. “It has not been determined if he will participate in the event by getting CDC (Center for Disease Control) approval to enter the country,” the statement said.

Currently, because Djokovic remains unvaccinated against COVID-19, he is unable to enter the United States. Also, tournament officials have said that everyone at Indian Wells – including players, sponsors, fans – must be fully vaccinated to be on site.

Defending champion Cameron Norrie, who won last October’s title returns and is seeded 12th, will be at Indian Wells. He will open defense of his 2021 crown against either Pedro Martinez or a qualifier. He could face last year’s finalist, Nikoloz Basilashvili, in the third round.

The top eight seeds are: 1. Medvedev, 2. Djokovic. 3. Alexander Zverev, 4. Nadal, 5. Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6. Matteo Berrettini, 7. Andrey Rublev and 8. Casper Ruud. The top 32 seeds receive first-round byes.

There are plenty of intriguing first-round matches that will take place later this week, including Marcos Giron against Lorenzo Musetti, Nick Kyrgios versus Sebastian Baez and Grigor Dimitrov opposing Tommy Paul.

The prize money for the BNP Paribas Open is a staggering $8,584,055 and the total financial commitment is $9,554,920. At stake is $1,231,245 to the winner plus 1,000 ATP Rankings points.

The men’s main draw begins play on Thursday with the final scheduled for Sunday, March 20.

Tuesday’s BNP Paribas Open qualifying results

Wednesday’s BNP Paribas Open order of play

Krejcikova withdraws citing elbow injury

Women’s top seed Barbora Krejcikova announced Tuesday afternoon she was withdrawing from the BNP Paribas Open, citing a lingering elbow injury. Her announcement comes less than a week after World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty announced she was planning to skip the WTA 1000 showcase event.

“I am extremely disappointed and sad to withdraw from the BNP Paribas Open,” Krejcikova said in a statement. “I was looking forward to playing in Indian Wells very much but unfortunately I won’t be able to do so this year. I have had a pain in my arm on and off since Doha, which today intensified overnight and together with my team I had to make a very tough decision to withdraw. I will focus on getting the right treatment as soon as possible and I hope I can be back on the court soonest.”

Krejcikova, the reigning French Open champion, practiced Monday at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. She had risen to World No. 2 since winning the Paris major last year. Earlier this year, she was a runner-up in Sydney and reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. She was also expected to be seeded first in the doubles draw with long-time partner Katerina Siniakova.

With Krejcikova’s withdrawal, Alizé Cornet will move into the top line of the women’s singles draw and become the No. 33 seed. The top half of the women’s draw begins first-round play on Wednesday.

Universal Tennis creates new global $25K tour

Universal Tennis has set about transforming tennis globally by connecting and growing the sport through innovative events, a global digital marketplace, and level-based play. On Tuesday, Universal Tennis (UniversalTennis.com) announced a media rights deal and investment with Amazon, which will see the two companies work together to drive positive, innovative changes to elevate the game of tennis.

Murray to donate rest of 2022 prize money to UNICEF

On Tuesday, former World No. 1 Andy Murray of Great Britain announced via social media that he’s donating his prize money earnings for the rest of 2022 to UNICEF UK’s efforts to help children in Ukraine. Murray is a global ambassador for the humanitarian organization.

Swiatek, Pliskova, Kvitova added to Credit One Charleston Open field

The Credit One Charleston Open, a WTA 500 event and the largest women’s-only tournament in North America, announced Tuesday it has added World No. 4 Iga Swiatek, No. 8 Karolina Pliskova and No. 31 Petra Kvitova to its already impressive lineup, which now features five the world’s Top 10 players and five Grand Slam champions.

The tournament will celebrate its 50th year in its newly renovated Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island in Charleston, S.C., April 2-10.

Swiatek, Pliskova and Kvitova join Garbiñe Muguruza, Simona Halep, Paula Badosa, Ons Jabeur, 2016 champion Sloane Stephens and 2019 titlist Madison Keys in this highly competitive field.

The fallout from the ATP Tour’s decision on Alexander Zverev

Monday evening’s announcement by the ATP Tour that it had completed its review of World No. 3 Alexander Zverev’s conduct during a recent tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, in which he violently hit the chair umpire’s stand repeatedly with his racquet following a doubles loss, resulted in a one-year probation of an 8-week suspension and $25,000 fine for his aggravated behavior. The ATP Tour’s decision was not well received by many who cover the sport of tennis and considered it just a slap on the wrist for Zverev.

Among them, Gerry Marzorati, who writes about tennis for The New Yorker, and Jon Wertheim, a longtime tennis writer and editor for Sports Illustrated and a tennis insider for Tennis Channel, discussed the ATP Tour’s decision in a Twitter thread on Tuesday.

Tennis celebrates International Women’s Day

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“Quotable …”

• “Doubt Andy Murray has every considered a career in politics but his awareness of social issues and the way he reacts positively, and selflessly, would put him streets ahead of many at Westminster. And we know how good he is at standing up for what he believes in too.”

– Marcus Buckland, British sports presenter, via Twitter on Tuesday.

• “This was the first step of the process of trying to win this thing this year. I think we’ve got a great opportunity with the guys that we have and the depth that we have.

“I’ll lead over to Indian Wells and watch some of the guys that weren’t on the team – Frances (Tiafoe), Reilly (Opelka), a few others. This is a process. We’ve got about eight guys or so that are part of it. The five guys that were here [in Reno], a few others that weren’t. Just because the guys weren’t here doesn’t mean they’re not part of the process, part of the team. Step one complete and we’ll move on to September.”

– Mardy Fish, U.S. Davis Cup captain, following his team’s 4-0 victory over Colombia in Reno, Nev. last Saturday.

 

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