INDIAN WELLS/WASHINGTON, March 5, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)
It’s been 25 years since an American woman has won the singles title of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. The last time a player from the United States won the title at Tennis Paradise was back in 2001 when Serena Williams lifted the Indian Wells trophy at age 19.
Coming into the WTA Tour’s third 1000-series event of the season in the California palm desert, World No. 4 Coco Gauff – the current American No. 1 and one of three players from the United States ranked in the WTA Top 10, along with World No. 5 Jessica Pegula and World No, 6 Amanda Anisimova – figures why not her? She’s one of 19 American women in this year’s 96-player field. Oh, and she was born three years after Williams’ 2001 triumph in Tennis Paradise.
Gauff has begun the 2026 campaign by going 10-4, including wins over World No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland at the United Cup and World No. 13 Karolina Muchova of Czechia at the Australian Open. However, two of her losses have come at the hands of World No. 9 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, first in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and more recently two weeks ago in the semifinals at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai. In between, she went out in her opening match against No. 42 Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy in Doha, also a WTA 1000 tournament.
Take a bow for this one, Coco Gauff! #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/aiVxa6mjPU
— wta (@WTA) February 20, 2026
“Maybe, in the future, I’ll skip Doha,” Gauff said during her pre-tournament news conference on Tuesday. “I love Doha, but I consistency have not played well there.
“Yeah, I think the season is so packed, and I think having a Grand Slam and then one week later two back-to-back 1000s, I mean, I know some people live in Dubai, but especially for American players it’s a long trek.
“I don’t regret it, because it already happened. I have done it before and I have had success later in the season.
“Yeah, something I would consider, for sure, in the future.”
The WTA 1000 draw in Dubai two weeks ago suffered from 10 injury withdrawals and four match retirements.
“I think this past tournament in Dubai, I just, I think it was a coincidence, just bad luck for the tournament with all the injuries and player withdrawals and things like that,” Gauff said.
In great company @CocoGauff | @JPegula | #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/v4UD22Dwip
— wta (@WTA) February 18, 2026
The 21–year-old Floridian admits she would like to see the WTA Tour mix up its schedule a bit to spread out the early-season 1000 events to avoid a repeat of what happened in Dubai last month.
“I definitely think that goes to show that the schedule maybe is a bit packed in that part of the season,” Gauff said. “I don’t think guys have – I think this is the first 1000 of the year. So, I definitely think it’s something that the tour should consider.”
Given the busy workload of the top players, though, Gauff said she would welcome a chance to play best-of-5 matches in Grand Slam events – even though it may not be practical.
“Yeah, I mean, it probably would favor me, because I’m physically up there with the best,” she said, “but I mean, I probably wouldn’t want to see that happen, and if it were to happen, I would prefer it to be the whole tournament not just [from] the quarters.
“I think changing the format in the middle of the tournament defeats the purpose of the playing field. I think it would be a lot on players and also, like, fans and TV. I mean, imagine, like, sometimes five sets last all the way to the 7 p.m. Session. If all of us were going five sets, I don’t even think we would be able to finish within the two weeks, to be honest.”
All about growing the game! @CocoGauff | #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/iixfPkoA21
— wta (@WTA) February 19, 2026
Gauff (11-5 lifetime at Indian Wells, including a fourth-round finish last year) will begin her quest to win the BNP Paribas Open title on Friday against 88th-ranked qualifier Kamila Rakhimova of Uzbekistan in the second round, following a first-round bye. She could face No. 31 seed Alexandra Eala of the Philippines in the third round and No. 14 seed Linda Noskova of Czechia in the four round.
A possible quarterfinal opponent for Gauff could be No. 7 Jasmine Paolini of Italy and No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the semifinals. No. 2 seed Swiatek and No. 5 seed Pegula loom large in the bottom half of the draw as possible title opponents.
News & noteworthy
During her pre-tournament news conference, Coco Gauff was asked if she followed the recent Winter Olympics. She explained that she was very inspired by a pair of individual athletes, figure skater Alyssa Liu of the United States and Chinese-American freestyle skier Eileen Gu.
On Liu, Gauff said: “I think her whole story was super inspiring, and I think I could highly relate as someone who was very young put into a sport.
“I wouldn’t say I have faced burnout, but there are times you’re mentally just tired of it and you feel like you’re doing stuff and you don’t know why. So I definitely could relate to her whole story. I was happy to see her be that voice saying the unsaid things that athletes think but are maybe scared to say.”
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On Gu, Gauff said: “Eileen Gu is someone I follow on Instagram and we’ve interacted. I’ve never met her, but she speaks so well.
“Obviously, she’s super smart. I think she’s one of those people you don’t want your parents to find out about because she’s so accomplished, and they’re, like,’What are you doing?’ I could be Grand Slam winner. And my mom is, like, ‘She graduated Stanford and did all this stuff.’ Yeah, so her, as well.”
On skier Lindsey Vonn: “And then obviously it was unfortunate to see everything that went on with Lindsey but I think still for her to take that leap of faith was still inspiring.
“There were a few stories that I followed. And obviously the hockey, women’s and men’s hockey was really cool to watch. I had never watched hockey before, but I was watching and I was excited. Maybe I’ll get into it.”
Around the Indian Wells Tennis Garden
Opening day and night of the 2026 BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday included a total of 16 women’s and 16 men’s first-round matches, all involving unseeded players.
Making history in Indian Wells ✨@ZeynepSonmez__ becomes the first Turkish player to win a main draw match here, defeating Kessler 7-6(7), 6-0!#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/dLLJm7bJdK
— wta (@WTA) March 4, 2026
Mission accomplished @MattBerrettini completes the comeback against Mannarino 4-6, 7-5, 7-5!@BNPPARIBASOPEN | #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/VbOGruKsJ4
— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 5, 2026
A feast for the 2025 champions https://t.co/lI2QadN2MG#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/5rLhyMbfLu
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 5, 2026
Wednesday’s Indian Wells results
Thursday’s Indian Wells order of play
By the numbers
Coco Gauff is making her sixth appearance at the BNP Paribas Open. Her best finish came in 2024 when she was a semifinalist. Last year, she reached the round of 16 and was a quarterfinalist in 2023. She’s 11-5 lifetime in Indian Wells.
“Quotable …”
“My dad is still, he’s very kind. He still does take care of my car for me. When I’m gone, I’ll leave the keys, and if it needs to be taken to service, he’ll take it. Or if the air pressure in the tires is low, he’ll take it for me. My dad is very kind. But no, my mom doesn’t do my laundry anymore unless I’m literally sick, which I haven’t been.
“At the tournaments she does it. When she’s here and there is a laundry room, she will do it, but not at home.”
– Coco Gauff, during her pre-tournament news conference, describing what her parents will and won’t do for her.
