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Eager to read through a detailed and comprehensive Indian Wells 2024 preview ahead of this 1000-level event? You’ve come to the right spot. Today I will be taking you through a full preview of one of two tournaments that makes up the legendary ‘sunshine double’ in the USA.
These two events cover Indian Wells and the Miami Open – back-to-back 1000-level tournaments that are always thrilling to watch. At the same time, all of the big guns are set to compete in Indian Wells this year. And because the ATP and WTA events run alongside one another, the world’s best are all in the same location to show their skills.
This doesn’t happen all that often on the professional tour, which also makes Indian Wells quite special. As for the specific players, on the men’s side, we have the likes of Medvedev, Sinner, Djokovic, Alcaraz, and many others due to compete. And for the women’s side, players like Rybakina, Swiatek, Gauff, Sabalenka, and others are listed in the main draw.
That said, who will take home all 1000 points and lift the title in Indian Wells? I’ve also given my two cents on who this might be to wrap up this Indian Wells 2024 preview. But first, let me cover some specifics for this event while running through the respective draws.
Indian Wells 2024 preview – key tournament details
Contents
As mentioned in the section above, ‘Indian Wells’ relates to both the men’s and women’s events, as things have been for many years in this location. Of course, I expect this to be a thrilling event given the status of the tournament and the caliber of players involved. That’s also why you’ll find many tennis predictions today covering the biggest matches throughout the tournament.
Anyway, that’s enough about the status and prestige of the tournament. Now, I feel it’s time to give some set details for this Indian Wells 2024 preview so that you gain a more rounded understanding of the event as a whole.
Tournament schedule
The tournament schedule for Indian Wells shows us that the event will run from March 6th through to March 17th. This extended schedule was first tried last year, and since it worked so well, the event organizers are using it again in 2024. As for the day-by-day schedule, I’ve given this below:
- First rounds – March 6th & 7th
- Second rounds – March 8th & 9th
- Third rounds – March 10th & 11th
- Fourth rounds – March 12th & 13th
- Quarter-finals – March 14th
- Semi-finals – March 15th (women’s semis) & March 16th (men’s semis)
- Finals – March 17th (men’s and women’s finals)
Defending champions
If you watched the 2023 Indian Wells event, you probably know who came out on top in the Californian desert. In the men’s event, it was Carlos Alcaraz who captured the title, which makes him the defending champion in 2024. As for the women’s event in 2023, it was Elena Rybakina who won the tournament, and she’s back to defend her crown in 2024.
Interestingly, however, neither of these players is the top seed in their respective events, as you’ll see later on in this Indian Wells 2024 preview.
Event format
Another key part of this Indian Wells 2024 preview relates to the actual structure of the tournament. After all, each event on the ATP schedule 2024 and the WTA schedule in terms of its status operates differently than others. So to clarify how the Indian Wells format works, both of the singles events have 96 players in the main draw.
Of these 96 players, 32 of them are seeds, 12 of them are qualifiers, and 8 of them are wildcards. However, the 32 seeds all receive a bye into round two of the event. And in terms of the format for the matches, they are all played using a ‘best of three’ format with a full third set.
Prize money
As you will likely be aware, the ATP and WTA Tours have operated using equal prize money for many years now. Therefore, the prize money available at Indian Wells this year is the exact same for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. To be specific, the prize pool stands at $8,995,555 for each.
Of this money, of course, the respective winners get the largest slice of the pie. And amazingly, this stands at $1.1 million for the winners of the singles events.
Indian Wells 2024 preview – breakdown of the men’s and women’s singles draws
At the time of writing, the official draw for the 2024 Indian Wells event has not yet been done. However, since we still know the main entrants and the seeds, we can at least highlight this information to gain an idea of the strength of the draw.
Let me reveal such details now.
Top seeds
There are 32 seeds in the men’s and women’s singles events. But to keep this Indian Wells 2024 preview as relevant as possible, I’ve focused on the top 8 seeds for each event only, as outlined below:
ATP top seeds
- Novak Djokovic (1)
- Carlos Alcaraz (2)
- Jannik Sinner (3)
- Daniil Medvedev (4)
- Alexander Zverev (5)
- Andrey Rublev (6)
- Holger Rune (7)
- Hubert Hurkacz (8)
WTA top seeds
- Iga Swiatek (1)
- Aryna Sabalenka (2)
- Coco Gauff (3)
- Elena Rybakina (4)
- Jessica Pegula (5)
- Ons Jabeur (6)
- Marketa Vondrousova (7)
- Qinwen Zheng (8)
My outright predictions – wrapping up this Indian Wells 2024 preview with hot tips
Despite the singles draws not being done yet, I can still provide an outright prediction for the winner of each event. And having reviewed factors like form, previous results in Indian Wells, and more, I’ve established the following two predictions to conclude this Indian Wells 2024 preview:
Men’s outright winner – Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic has not played since his shock defeat to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open. He’s taken time off to rest, perform a few personal assessments, and work on his game for more than a month now. And being the champion that he is, I’m sure he will be hungrier than ever to take home the Indian Wells trophy in 2024.
Women’s outright winner – Elena Rybakina
Although Swiatek is probably the most in-form player right now, I’m shooting for Elena Rybakina to defend her Indian Wells title. She’s won two titles already in 2024, and she’s won plenty of high-level matches in the tournaments she’s competed in. Of course, she has the added boost of winning Indian Wells last year too, which will no doubt give her confidence coming into this event.
So for me, it’s Rybakina who has the best shot at winning Indian Wells 2024.
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