The 2021 edition of the Indian Wells Masters witnessed first time winners in both the men’s and women’s singles tournament. We review the 47th edition of the men’s event and the 32nd women’s tournament with facts generated by Stats Perform’s Tennis insights team.
Men’s Singles
● Cameron Norrie (ranked No.26), became the lowest ATP Ranked player to win the title at Indian Wells since Ivan Ljubicic in 2010 (also No.26 that time out).
● Norrie has reached six ATP Tour finals in 2021, the joint most of any player this season, level with Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev (including ATP Cup).
● Cameron Norrie contested his sixth ATP final this season, Andy Murray (13 in 2016) is the only British player to feature in more finals in a single season in the Open Era. Norrie has equalled Roger Taylor in 1973 and Greg Rusedski in 1997.
● Norrie became the first British player to win an ATP Masters 1000 tournament since Andy Murray in Paris in 2016.
● Cameron Norrie became the fourth British player to reach the final at Indian Wells after Greg Rusedski (in 1998 v Marcelo Ríos), Tim Henman (in 2002 v Lleyton Hewitt and in 2004 v Roger Federer) and Andy Murray (in 2009 v Rafael Nadal), but he was the first to win the title.
● Prior to this tournament, the best result achieved by Cameron Norrie in an ATP Masters 1000 tournament was a Round of 16 appearance in Rome against Lorenzo Sonego back in 2019.
● Nikoloz Basilashvili became the first Georgian player to reach an ATP Masters 1000 final.
● In the quarter finals against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Nikoloz Basilashvili won his first match against a top three ranked opponent after having lost his previous six (v Federer at the Australian Open 2016, Nadal at the Roland Garros 2017, US Open 2018, Rome 2019, ATP Cup 2020 and Djokovic in Doha in 2019).
● For the first time in the history of the tournament, no top 20 seeded players reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells in the men’s singles main draw.
● Taylor Fritz has lost each of his five semi-finals in 2021 (Doha, Cagliari, Los Cabos, Atlanta and Indian Wells).
Women’s Singles
- Paula Badosa became the first Spanish woman to win the title at Indian Wells, and only the fourth Spanish player to lift the trophy in this tournament after José Higueras in 1983, Alex Corretja in 2000 and Rafael Nadal in 2007, 2009 and 2013.
- Badosa became the second player to win the Indian Wells women’s final after winning two tie-breaks in the match after Steffi Graf in 1996 against Conchita Martínez (7-6 7-6).
- Paula Badosa became the second player to win the women’s final at Indian Wells in the third set tie break, after Mary Joe Fernández against Amanda Coetzer in 1993.
- With Paula Badosa’s win in Indian Wells and Garbine Muguruza’s victory in Dubai in 2021, Spanish players have now won two WTA 1000 tournaments in the same season for the first time since 1996, when Arantxa Sánchez Vicario won in Charleston and Conchita Martínez was victorious in Rome – former Tier I tournaments.
- Only Lindsay Davenport (six) has played in more finals at Indian Wells than Victoria Azarenka (three, level with Hingis, Clijsters, Wozniacki, Sharapova, Graf, Kuznetsova and Serena Williams).
- Paula Badosa and Victoria Azarenka played out the longest final on the WTA Tour this season (3 hours and 4 minutes).
- For the first time in the history of the tournament, none of the top eight seeded players advanced to the quarter finals at Indian Wells in the WTA Main Draw.
- Ons Jabeur is the player to win the most matches on the WTA Tour this season (48).
- Jabeur made 20 dropshot winners at Indian Wells 2021, more than any other player.
- Beatriz Haddad Maia was the first Lucky Loser to reach the Last 16 in the women’s singles at Indian Wells since Rachel McQuillan in 2001.
- Martina Trevisan v Marie Bouzkova in the First Round at Indian Wells was the second longest match (3 hours and 52 minutes) on the WTA Tour this season, after Gorgodze v Kucova in Gdynia (3h 57m).
- Victoria Azarenka was the player with the most aces (24) at Indian Wells in 2021 in the WTA main draw.
- Azarenka also made 58 successful net approaches in this tournament, at least 30 more than any other player.
- Jelena Ostapenko was the player with the most forehand winners (91) in this tournament.
- Ostapenko also made the most backhand winners (59) at Indian Wells this year.
Facts compiled by Nicolo Tonato.