Iga Swiatek is back in California to defend her Indian Wells title from 2022. However, the rest of the top players in the world are ready to challenge the world #1 in a fabulous looking tournament.
Indian Wells is the second WTA1000 series event of the season and it was at this point of the season last year when Ash Barty decided to retire from tennis and Iga Swiatek bloomed into a dominant player on the circuit.
However, last week in Dubai showed that Swiatek can still be beaten and is potentially vulnerable under pressure. The champion from that tournament, Barbora Krejcikova, is here, along with Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, and a host of other players wanting to take home the ranking points and winnings.
The ATP Indian Wells in-depth preview is also on site to read.
WATCH ALL WTA INDIAN WELLS MATCHES STREAMED LIVE HERE
18+ | Geo Restrictions may apply | Be Gamble Aware
WTA Indian Wells Betting Tips
Will be added after the draw and odds are revealed.
Event In Focus: WTA Indian Wells
The analysis grid this week doesn’t cover the whole field. The sixteen seeded players are covered alongside other fancied players from outside of the top 16 seedings.
Rankings & 12-month Form
From this it is easy to see how dominant Iga Swiatek has been in the last twelve months. Her games won record is off-the-scale, 110 would usually be considered world class, but Swiatek is far beyond that.
A number of players are above the 110 mark, but it is Jessica Pegula who has the next best games won ratio, a full 18% below Swiatek. Belinda Bencic’s numbers are very good, a high win percentage and over 110 for games won.
The sheer number of matches that Caroline Garcia and Beatriz Haddad Maia have played in twelve months are standouts, Garcia has kept a high winning percentage across those. The Frenchwoman also carries the most unbreakable serve by sheer numbers over the season, though her return game doesn’t match up to most of the other top women.
Other long shots that have something going for them include Marketa Vondrousova, who’s hard court ranking is much higher than her current WTA ranking. Also, it is really interesting to see how different Darya Kasatina is to the rest of the field in her game style. Her serve is easily broken, but her return game is so much better than most that she is able to win enough matches to be competitive.
Hard Court & Other Form Data
Taking into account the surface type in Indian Wells we are able to break down the players’ career performance on hard courts on the WTA Tour. These records include qualifying rounds. With the best players in the world here it was worth compiling the players’ recent record against the Top 10, and also their win/loss records in North America, as sometimes players play particularly well in certain conditions.
For the last few events I’ve been able to point out that Victoria Azarenka still has the best hard court record in the game. Not any more. As predicted two weeks ago, Iga Swiatek overtook the percentage of games won by the Belarusian during WTA Dubai.
Elena Rybakina looks to have the best serve on hard courts at the moment, which is always a good position to be in, if you can find your return game on any given day then you’re in with a great chance of the win. Jelena Ostapenko’s career hard court data is poor, but is actually improving.
Important Form Points
Amanda Anisimova is clearly in very poor form at the moment and can’t really be considered for the win here. Aryna Sabalenka has the best current form in the field.
Swiatek obviously has excellent form against the other greats of the game. Interestingly, Haddad Maia and Krejcikova can also seem to raise their game against the best. Whereas Marta Kostyuk has never experienced a win against the top ten, Ons Jabeur and Coco Gauff clearly have something to improve in the hardest matches.
It is also interesting that there are a few players that seem to not have brought their best game to North America as yet in Rybakina, Sabalenka, and Krejcikova. Whereas Jabeur and Kasatkina have done well in the continent in comparison to their general careers.
WTA Indian Wells Draw
Indian Wells has a 32-seed, 96-player draw. The 32 seeds wil be given a bye into the second round. The draw will be posted here once it has been conducted.
WTA Indian Wells Betting Tips
A full write-up of the tips selected wil be posted here once the tips are decided.
