INDIAN WELLS/WASHINGTON, March 6, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)
Reigning BNP Paribas Open champions Jack Draper and Mirra Andreeva have returned to the California palm desert 12 months after winning the biggest titles of their respective careers. For both, winning Indian Wells proved to be a springboard to securing a Top-10 place in the rankings.
While Draper has struggled with injuries over the past eight months and is only playing in his second ATP Tour event of the year following Dubai last week, Andreeva has already captured one title in 2026, at Adelaide, during the second week of the season after being a consistent performer on the WTA Tour last year. She reached five quarterfinals, including both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, and looks forward to – and expects to go – deep in every tournament she plays.
Both defending champions, Draper, 24, and Andreeva, 18, sat before tournament media earlier this week, grateful to be back and to defend their titles.
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“Yeah, it feels amazing [to be back],” Draper said on Tuesday, after winning his first ATP Masters 1000 at Indian Wells 12 months ago behind a baseline attack that relied on brilliance and raw power. He knocked out two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a tense semifinal and followed it up by defeating Holger Rune in the final.
“Year has gone very quickly. Slow at the same time, as well.
“One of my favorite tournaments for sure, especially after the memories of last year. Yeah, I’m just very grateful to be back on the tour and doing what I love.”
On Wednesday, Andreeva said: “Yeah, it feels amazing to be back to this place. I have amazing memories from last year, so I’ll just try to do my best to create new ones this year.”
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Draper has dealt with a chronic injury – a bone bruise to his left elbow, his serving arm – that limited his play to just a handful of matches after Wimbledon last summer. It happened after Draper enjoyed an outstanding European clay-court season. He reached the final in Madrid, backed it with a quarterfinal finish in Rome and reached the round of 16 at the French Open. Next, Draper followed with a semifinal run on grass at Queen’s Club in London. Then, he exited in the second round at Wimbledon broken down.
While Draper tried to make a comeback at the US Open, it was short-lived. He withdrew after winning his first-round match and decided to shut down for the remainder of the 2025 season in order to rest and recover his ailing elbow and arm. Draper also decided to make a coaching change. After being mentored for many years by James Trotman, he’s now coached by Andy Murray‘s former coach Jamie Delgado. The time away from the ATP Tour allowed Draper to work on various facets of his game, such as his transition game and his volleys.
After coming back to contribute a win in Great Britain’s Davis Cup 3-0 tie victory over Norway in February, Draper made his ATP Tour season debut in Dubai last week. He defeated No. 102 Quentin Halys in the first round, 7-6 (8), 6-3, in back of 13 service aces before losing in three tight sets to 28th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech in the next round, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
Jack Draper returns #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/q567Z23t39
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 1, 2026
“Yeah, I feel like I wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be in the tournament if I didn’t feel like I could go all the way again,” the 14th-seeded Draper said, now sporting a buzz-cut hairdo. “That was probably the primary reason I didn’t go out to Australia, just purely because if I’m going to enter a tournament, I’m going to be in the event, I want to feel like I can be physically ready to not just take part but to go all the way, because I believe in my tennis so much that when I get out there, I know that I can play some great stuff.
“At this point, truthfully, I’m just very grateful to be back on the court, to be back on the tour. I’m feeling like I have improved a lot as a player over the last eight months, but I do recognize that I have been away from the game, and it is a bit of a step up in level to just come straight back to it after that amount of time out of the game. So, let’s see what happens. I’m sort of not overthinking things too much.
“My main priority is looking after my body, making sure that when I’m able to hit the match court that I’m fully prepared for what’s to come, and I always believe in my tennis, so let’s see how far I can go.”
Now ranked 14th after having fallen out of the Top 10, Draper will have 1,000 points to defend and could face a huge drop in the rankings if he goes out early. The 6-foot-4-inch British lefty begins his title defense on Saturday against No. 93 Roberto Bautista Agut. If he should beat Bautista Agut, No. 19 seed Francisco Cerundolo likely would await in the third round. Then, there could be a match-up against No. 3 seed Djokovic in the fourth round, No. 7 seed Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals and No. 1 seed Alcaraz in the semifinals. To say the least, Draper has his work cut out for him.
An absolute ROCKET from Jack @DDFTennis | #DDFTennispic.twitter.com/pOYXeyImYp
— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 25, 2026
Meanwhile, the No. 8 seed Andreeva, ranked eighth, will face 65th-ranked Solana Sierra in her opening match on Saturday. The Argentine pulled off a 7-5, 7-5 upset of No. 48 Peyton Stearns, who fresh off winning a WTA 250 title in Austin, Texas last weekend.
Andreeva said that after her 2025 twin successes in winning titles at Dubai and Indian Wells, it became a challenge maintaining that championship feeling week after week.
“I was just kind of struggling to play and use that level all the tournaments that I played. So, it was kind of a little bit on and off, which was also a new experience for me,” said Andreeva, who compiled a 40-16 win-loss record last season in all competitions and is off to an 11-4 start this year.
“But now if that happens again, I know how to deal with it and I know what to do. I wouldn’t say that I lost the level that I was playing. I was just kind of not using it every time that I would play the tournaments.”
Touch of genius from Mirra Andreeva #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/d5kUnkibLO
— wta (@WTA) February 19, 2026
Like Draper, Andreeva also has 1,000 points to defend. However, she’s trying her best not to be distracted by it. Instead, Andreeva is looking forward to the journey ahead in Tennis Paradise.
“Well, honestly I thought that I would think about that a lot,” she said. “I was worried about defending points in Dubai since Roland Garros. So, you know, I was thinking about that a lot, but then actually when I came to Dubai, the only thing I felt is excitement of being there again, of feeling new emotions as being on the tournament as a defending champion.
“So again, it was all new to me, but I didn’t feel the pressure for some reason as I thought I would. And here is the same thing. I’m just so excited to be here as a defending champion, see my photos almost everywhere in every corner.
“It’s just nice to be here again, and now I don’t feel any pressure to defend points.”
What would you pick as your Champions Luncheon meal? @jackdraper0 and Mirra Andreeva share theirs. #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/vBT8sTVNeC
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 5, 2026
News & noteworthy
While Jack Draper normally doesn’t like letting outside people into his life outside of tournaments and outside of the public place – and isn’t a big fan of social media – he and Vuori, his Southern California-based clothing sponsor, have put together a three-part docuseries for Draper’s YouTube channel in order to show what his comeback has been like.
‘I think it’s actually something that I will carry on, because I think it’s good to share your journey, good to share and hopefully inspire kids and younger generations and to show that it’s not all the highlights and the glitz and glamour,” Draper said.
“There is more to the sport and the lifestyle than that. There is a lot of ups and downs, and I think as well as the moments you see on social media or the highlight reel, it’s important to show a bit more of a raw side to it as well.
“I think I’ll carry on doing it, and hopefully, you know, give people some good insights.”
During Draper’s downtime from the Tour last year, he also sat for an extensive interview with The Tennis Podcast in November, in which he spoke at length about the mental and physical demands that are placed on tennis players by the sport’s nearly-year-round calendar.
Around the Indian Wells Tennis Garden
With 16 men’s and 16 women’s matches on Thursday’s order of play – none of them involving any seeded players – the first round was completed.
Survives the test @GrigorDimitrov defeats Atmane in three 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 and will face Alcaraz in round two. #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/ywbO83E4ea
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 5, 2026
Sailing through ⛵️@TaylorTownsend moves past Bouzkova 6-2 6-1 & into the second round!#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/VNCpDldCl3
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 5, 2026
Inspiring a nation
Alex Eala | #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/Mz8Wa8mgbT
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 5, 2026
Thursday’s Indian Wells results
Friday’s Indian Wells order of play
By the numbers
The last seven champions at Indian Wells have been 23 years old or younger, including last year’s titlist Mirra Andreeva. Also, Naomi Osaka (2018), Bianca Andreescu (2019), Paula Badosa (2021), Iga Swiatek (2022, 2024) and Elena Rybakina (2023). Prior to this current stretch, the previous five champions average ages was 27.5 years old.
“Quotable …”
• “I think it’s pretty complicated to have a regular life when you travel all year long to different countries, but, you know, the best I can do is to try to bring my family with me on the tournaments. Now also we can try to bring our puppy, as well, and it’s the first time that I traveled to the tournament with a dog, so it’s also a new experience for me how to not to just focus on myself but also take care of another little creature that just follows me around everywhere.
“So it’s also something new to me, so, you know, the best I can do is to just have the family around me almost all of the time, and that’s what helps the most for me.”
– Mirra Andreeva, during her pre-tournament news conference, on what it’s like having a dog on tour with her.
• “Yeah, there is nothing like a buzz cut. Honestly, you don’t have to do anything.
“What inspired the haircut? I think, I don’t know, I have just been out for a long period of time. Eight months is difficult. Especially in an individual sport, you become quite isolated. There is a lot of difficult moments, and when you come out of that and you start to feel better within yourself, yeah, just fancied a fresh start.
“Not sure if it’s my best haircut or my best fashion choice, but something different I think is always good. I think I’ll return to it again, but maybe I’ll let it grow for now.”
– Jack Draper, during his pre-tournament news conference, on what inspired his buzz-cut haircut.
