The 2021 edition of the Indian Wells Masters arrives seven months later than planned, with the original March tournament postponed due to the pandemic – this after the 2020 tournament was cancelled entirely. We preview 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

Reigning men’s singles winner at Indian Wells, Dominic Thiem.
  • Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have more titles at Indian Wells (five both) than anyone else.

  • Indian Wells has been won by a seeded player in each of the last 19 editions, after two years in a row when a non-seeded player won, Álex Corretja in 2000 and Mark Philippoussis in 1999.

  • Each of the last 11 finals at Indian Wells have seen two seeded players meet, the last unseeded player to reach the final was the American Mardy Fish in 2008, he was defeated by Novak Djokovic.

  • The #1 and #2 seeds have met in the final at Indian Wells six times, but only once has the #2 player lifted the trophy: Boris Becker beating Stefan Edberg in 1987 – the other occasions were  Connors-Lendl in 1981, Connors-Noah in 1984, Sampras-Agassi in 1995, Federer-Hewitt in 2005 and Djokovic-Federer in 2015.

  • Over the last 10 editions of Indian Wells, only two Americans have reached the final, both being defeated, John Isner in 2012 against Roger Federer and Andy Roddick in 2010 against Ivan Ljubičić.

  • Only two players have played more than one final at Indian Wells without lifting the trophy: Ivan Lendl (v Jimmy Connors in 1981, v Yannick Noah in 1982) and Tim Henman (v Lleyton Hewitt in 2002, v Roger Federer in 2004).

  • Novak Djokovic has failed to reach the quarter finals in each of his last three appearances at Indian Wells, losing in the Third Round in 2019 against Philipp Kohlschreiber, in Round 2 v Taro Daniel in 2018 and in the Fourth Round in 2017 against Nick Kyrgios.

  • Indian Wells 2019 was the last Masters 1000 event played outdoor on hard courts in which Daniil Medvedev failed to reach the Last 16 (losing in the Third Round v Filip Krajinović).

  • Matteo Berrettini has never won a main draw match at Indian Wells: losing to Daniil Medvedev in 2018 and Sam Querrey in 2019, both defeats coming in three sets.

  • Stefanos Tsitsipas was eliminated in his maiden match at Indian Wells 2019 (Second Round) by Félix Auger-Aliassime, who himself reached the main draw thanks to a wild card. This is the last time a Greek player lost against a wild card on hard courts, while his last defeat against a wild card overall was back at the Rome Masters 1000 in 2020 v Jannik Sinner.

Women’s Singles

In 2019, Bianca Andreescu became the youngest woman to win the Indian Wells women’s singles title since Serena Williams in 1999.
  • Only Martina Navratilova, in 1990 and 1991, has won back-to-back Indian Wells tournaments.

  • No player has won more than two titles at Indian Wells: the only two current players crowned twice are Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka – the other woman with two trophies are Martina Navratilova, Mary Joe Fernández, Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, Daniela Hantuchová and Maria Sharapova.

  • Lindsay Davenport has reached six finals at Indian Wells, twice as many as any other player in the history of the tournament.

  • Svetlana Kuznetsova has appeared in the most finals at Indian Wells without ever winning: three, in 2007 against Daniela Hantuchová, in 2008 v Ana Ivanovic and in 2017 v Elena Vesnina.

  • Only two players have managed to win both the Singles and Doubles tournaments at Indian Wells in the same season: Vera Zvonareva (in 2009, with Victoria Azarenka in Doubles) and Lindsay Davenport (in 1997 with Natasha Zvereva and 2000 with Corina Morariu).

  • In the last 14 editions of the tournament, since 2006, the only American player to reach the final at Indian Wells is Serena Williams (lost in 2016 against Victoria Azarenka), while 12 players from the USA reached the final in the 17 editions pre 2006 (eight wins – with all of the four finals lost in this run by Americans coming via Lindsay Davenport).

  • Maria Sharapova, in 2013, is the last player to lift the trophy at Indian Wells without dropping a single set on her way to the title.

  • In the 31 finals played at Indian Wells so far, only five have seen the winner lose the first set of the match: Mary Joe Fernández in 1993 v Amanda Coetzer, Lindsay Davenport v Martina Hingis in 2000, Serena Williams v Kim Clijsters in 2001, Simona Halep v Jelena Janković in 2015 and Elena Vesnina in 2017 v Svetlana Kuznetsova.

  • The last two editions of the Indian Wells tournament have been won by a non-seeded player (Naomi Osaka in 2018 and Bianca Andreescu in 2019): in the 29 tournaments before that, it happened only twice, with Serena Williams beating Steffi Graf in the 1999 final and Kim Clijsters overcoming Lindsay Davenport in 2005.

  • In the last tournament played at Indian Wells in 2019, Karolina Pliskova registered more aces than any other player (45); whilst Mona Barthel made the most double faults (31).

Facts compiled by Nicolo Tonato.