Italian talents take centre stage
The Australian Open semi-final loss was backed up with a quarterfinal defeat at the Qatar Open with his rival Carlos Alcaraz winning both events. The Italian does come into a period where he is defending no ranking points due to his suspension this time last year, giving him a great chance to catch up or even surpass the current world number one if he can perform at the highest level. He begins his Sunshine swing with a matchup against qualifier Dalibor Svrcina who has some challenge on his Indian Wells debut.
Sinner is not the only Italian involved on day three. Lorenzo Musetti was looking very good to dumping out Novak Djokovic of the Australian Open before a significant injury resulted in him retiring and skipping the entirety of the Golden swing. He will make his return to the court with the motivation to continue how he started with the year. He will take on Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.
Alexander Zverev in action
The highest ranked Italian to win a title this year is Flavio Cobolli. After a dreadful start, he won the Mexican Open with a fine display to get him back on track. Miomir Kecmanovic will be his opening challenge, and a tough one with the Serbian also in fine form.
Auger-Aliassime, Shelton also taking to court
Felix Auger-Alissime was one win away from reaching three finals on the spin after retiring in the Australian Open first round. He won the Open Occitanie before losing against Alex de Minaur in the ABN AMOR Open. Daniil Medvedev then took him down in Dubai but his form is at a very high level. A mouthwatering matchup is in store as the Canadian looks to keep his hot-streak up against Gael Monfils in his final Indian Wells campaign. He will look to entertain the crowd but will have to be at his best to unsettle the 2025 Paris Masters finalist.
While Auger-Aliassime and Monfils have never won a Masters 1000 title, Ben Shelton completed this at the Canadian Open last year. Capitalising on a depleted field, Karen Khachanov was taken down as he lifted his biggest title to date, and will be wanting to continue that success as he eyes up the number one American spot. Already the Dallas Open champion, the 23-year-old will face the big serving Reilly Opelka who is also a Canadian Open finalist, albeit not with the success of his fellow American.
Another all-American clash will see the Mexican Open finalist Frances Tiafoe take on Jenson Brooksby, who got back on track in Dubai after a slow start to the year. Someone on good form is Brandon Nakashima, who will play doubles with Tiafoe this week. His first task is Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli. Australian Open quarterfinalist Learner Tien is also ready to step onto the court with Adam Walton his opponent.
Arthur Fils has impressed since returning to the sport following an injury. He is the second Frenchman in action with Dino Prizmic his opponent. The other matches include Denis Shapovalov playing against Tomas Martin Etcheverry with Alejandro Davidovich coming up versus Zachary Svajda. Jakub Mensik will defend his Miami Open title soon with a positive result here critical. Marcos Giron will look to prevent that as fellow American Tommy Paul wraps up the day with a clash against Zizou Bergs.
World number one among top 10 talents in action
World number four Coco Gauff has also never won here in her short but rewarding stint as one of the best players in the world. The two-time Grand Slam champion has struggled massively with her serve in recent times but is also still able to muster up some positive results, reaching the semi-final in Dubai last time out. All focus is on the action in California now, with Kamilla Rakhimova her next task.
Coco Gauff celebrates point at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 2026
Another very talented American will be seeing out the action late on, with Amanda Anisimova looking to add a third WTA 1000 title to her ever-growing collection. In six previous appearances, she has only made it past the second round twice, with her best result coming on debut with a fourth round appearance. She is expected to do much better and will look to kick her campaign off with a bang against Anna Blinkova.
As well as them, Jasmine Paolini will take to the court with a clash against Anastasia Potapova. The Italian was a huge favourite at one point to win the Merida Open on debut but surprisingly crashed out. While that was a huge disappointment, Victoria Mboko is on the crest of a wave. The Qatar Open runner-up, she is competing at her first Indian Wells as she looks to climb deeper into the top 10. Kimberly Birrell is up next for the 19-year-old with a spot in the third round on the line.
Experience winners and young talents on show
The 2018 champion Naomi Osaka will compete in her first tournament since withdrawing ahead of her third round match at the Australian Open. She will return to action against Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva who has recently become the first Andorran to reach the top 100. Clara Tauson is a former WTA 1000 finalist in the Qatar Open last year and will be hoping to somehow repeat those events. She has to find a way past Yulia Putintseva if that dream is set to come to fruition.
Emma Raducanu has reached just one WTA 1000 quarterfinal in her career, that coming in last year’s Miami Open. The former US Open champion is still without a coach as she attempts to bounce back from a disappointing Middle East swing. Anastasia Zakharova is the player she will look to get past with Anisimova a possible third round opponent.
Once Raducanu was one of the brightest talents in the sport, but now the 23-year-old is a fully established WTA player. On show in day three are a variety of the hottest prospects in the sport. Already mentioned Mboko, Iva Jovic will be gaining a lot of support in front of a home crowd. Now a Grand Slam quarterfinalist, she will not want to sit and admire what she has already completed, motivated to keep soldiering on with Camila Osorio her second round challenge.
Linda Noskova is already an experienced player at the top of the sport having reached the China Open final. Not many players can label themselves as WTA 1000 finalists, but to complete it at the age of 20 is outstanding. Now 21, the Czech is ranked 14th in the world. Looking to become the latest player from her country to make it into the next stage, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro will look to take glory for herself.
Not getting the headlines as she did last year, Maya Joint will want to change that as she announces her intentions against Jaqueline Cristian while world number 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova will be hoping to jump back into the top 10 with a positive showing. Another Aussie will be on display in California with Talia Gibson the player on the other side of the net with Ajla Tomljanovic also in action against Xinyu Wang.
A duo of Russians completes the hefty fixture lineup in this action packed first day of second round action. Diana Shnaider has a tough test in the form of Transylvania Open champion Sorana Cirstea with Anna Kalinskaya facing off against Turkish number one Zeynep Sonmez.