Californian Indian Wells will host WTA Premier Mandatory tournament on March 5-18 with the winners’ pot equalling to $ 8,648,508. One of the greatest spring tournaments gathers world’s best female tennis players on the Indian Wells Tennis Garden’s hard courts, including Russian player Maria Sharapova, the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka and the American Serena Williams – all of them will perform in the US.
It has already been two years since the three prima donnas of the world’s tennis met each other. According to the performance statistics, the last competition shared by the players was Roland Garros in May 2016. The Indian Wells tournament will see the first appearance of Serena Williams after the birth of her child, Victoria Azarenka also had her rest time after giving birth, while Maria Sharapova served her doping ban.
For Sharapova, Azarenka and Williams, the tournament starts on March 8 with the Round 128. The Russian will embark on the journey to the trophy with Japanese Naomi Osaka, ranked 44th. Victoria Azarenka will meet British Heather Watson, ranked 70th in the WTA table. Serena Williams will square off against Kazakhstan’s tennis player Zarina Diyas.
Sharapova (2006, 2013), Williams (1999, 2001) and Azarenka (2012, 2016) are all seeking a record third BNP Paribas Open title.
Being the seeds’ leader, the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep will appear in her first duel meet against Czech Kristýna Plíšková or Chinese Ying-Ying Duan. Live streaming of the event with all the information will be available at stakers.com. The second seed Dutch Caroline Wozniacki is to meet the winner of the ‘Lesia Tsurenko – Lara Arruabarrena’ match.
Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, ranked third in the tournament, will start with the match against either Canadian Eugenie Bouchard or American Sachia Vickery. The fourth best player among the competitors is Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who will unzip her racket against Mona Barthel from Germany or Verónica Cepede Royg from Paraguay.
