Novak Djokovic should be considered the favourite to capture the men’s title in Indian Wells despite not playing at the event for five years, according to its tournament director.
Tommy Haas has lent his full backing behind the world No.1 who is set to return to action later this week for the first time since his semi-final loss to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open. Djokovic hasn’t played at Indian Wells since 2019 due to reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the event was cancelled in 2020, he was unable to play the next three years due to travel restrictions that were in place. Under an emergency health law, foreign visitors to America were required to be vaccinated against the virus and the tennis star wasn’t. He applied for special exemptions to play but was refused by authorities. These restrictions ended last year.
Djokovic, who has previously named Indian Wells as his favourite event, is a five-time champion. The only other male player to have won the tournament as many times as him is Roger Federer. He was also runner-up in 2007 to Rafael Nadal.
Looking ahead to this year’s tournament, former world No.2 Haas told Eurosport that he considers the 24-time Grand Slam champion as the title favourite and played down the significance of his recent loss in Australia.
“Djokovic has had such success there, he’s coming back. I feel like every time he doesn’t win a tournament, we all look at it as a failure, right? And I hate to use that word anyway,” Haas said.
“But even the semis at the Australian Open, we all look at it like, ‘Oh, he lost in the semis, he didn’t win the Australian Open.’ But you know how many people of players would love to get to a semi-final one time.
“It’s really outrageous, so you can never count him out. He’s obviously always gonna be a favourite and he’s always gonna look at himself as like, the favourite to win the title.”
Among those challenging the Serbian for the title will be Sinner, who is currently on a 12-match winning streak after also winning Rotterdam last month. Meanwhile, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will be out to prove a point as he seeks his first title since Wimbledon last year. Daniil Medvedev, who lost in the final to Acaraz 12 months ago, will also be hoping for a strong run.
As for the women’s event, Haas has not picked world No.1 Iga Swiatek and instead chose Aryna Sabalenka as the one to watch. After capturing her second Australian Open title, Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat in Dubai where she lost 12 out of the last 15 games played against Dona Vekic. The Belarussian was runner-up in Indian Wells last year to Elena Rybakina.
“On the women’s side, Sabalenka, you know, she has such a big, powerful game. Gives her a little bit more time sometimes in Indian Wells too,” Haas explained.
“But she moves well, she’s feeling obviously very, very good about her game — defending her title at the Australian Open. So I kind of give her the edge also going in, no matter what happens the next couple of weeks.”
The first round of matches at Indian Wells will get underway on Wednesday. This year’s singles champions will each earn $1.1M in prize money.
