Emma Raducanu must be allowed to feel 'safe and protected' in Indian Wells, says Gigi Salmon

In her latest Sky Sports column, Gigi Salmon discusses her tips for Indian Wells, British hopes, Petra Kvitova’s return from maternity leave, Raducanu’s stalking ordeal, and the current doping system…

Welcome to Tennis Paradise, where players are greeted by a desert setting, mountains and palm trees for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the event known as the ‘Fifth Slam’ which houses the second largest permanent tennis stadium in the world after Arthur Ashe in New York, with a capacity of over 16,000. It’s also the first of six joint 1000 events in the calendar and the first part of the ‘Sunshine Double’ with Miami.

Alcaraz targets a ‘three-peat’

Both defending champions will be looking for a successful defence, Iga Swiatek on the women’s and on the men’s Carlos Alcaraz who will be looking to make it three in a row. This proved to be a really important title for the Spaniard last year, having escaped relatively unscathed from the bees that invaded centre court. Alcaraz went on to beat Daniil Medvedev in the final after which he said: “It means a lot to me, lifting this trophy, winning this tournament, because I overcome a lot of problems in my head, a lot of problems physically.” Fast forward a year and Alcaraz already has a title win in Rotterdam and with the current world No 1 Jannik Sinner sidelined with a ban for three months, the opportunity is there to take back top spot.

Also with that possibility but so far not able to take advantage of the Italian’s ban is Sascha Zverev who has stuttered in recent weeks and failed to capitalise on the points and the opportunity that has opened up ahead of him. He comes into Indian Wells as the top seed. Four former champions will start in the draw Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Cameron Norrie and Novak Djokovic, who confirmed that he will continue to work with Andy Murray most likely in the States and some clay court tournaments. We will see how it goes after that.

Tough draw for Djokovic

Djokovic’s CV is second to none and may well go down if not already as the greatest player of all time but if he is to win a 25th Grand Slam title and 100th tour title then he knows at the age of 37 that he will need to play matches. He won’t be able to turn up at a Slam and win it. The longer he goes without number 25 the harder it will become.

He’s a five-time winner in the desert, a title that eluded his coach and it’s not going to be easy if he’s to make it six as his opponents could well be Nick Kyrgios, Francisco Cerundolo, Alex de Minaur, Carlo Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz and Sascha Zverev.

It’s a bit up in the air when it comes to predicting things on the men’s side, while I would say that Carlos Alcaraz is favourite to add to his Indian Wells titles, things are all a little mixed behind him.

Zverev has won back-to-back matches once in three tournaments since Australia, Taylor Fritz is nursing an abdominal injury, Casper Ruud picked up food poisoning in Acapulco forcing him to withdraw, Daniil Medvedev has been desperately trying to find his form, control his temper and fend off questions about retirement.

Andrey Rublev was a title winner in Doha, out early in Dubai and talks about how he is balancing his tennis with working on his mental health. Stefanos Tsitsipas is the stand-out having won his first 500 title recently in Dubai and Alex de Minaur decided not to defend his title in Mexico and opt for the Middle Eastern swing which resulted in a quarter-final and a second round.

Sabalenka still the player to beat?

It doesn’t look all that more settled on the women’s side as I’m not sure anyone would have predicted that the first two WTA 1000 finals of the year would be contested by Amanda Anisimov and Jelena Ostapenko in Doha and Mirra Andreeva and Clara Tauson in Dubai.

World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who spoke of lacking hunger on court and emotionally not being at her best since losing in the final of the Australian Open, has had some time to recharge, took a trip to the Oscars, has a pretty good draw and knows that with her points cushion, whatever happens over the course of the ‘Sunshine Double’ she will still be the player to beat at the end of it.

Iga Swiatek hasn’t had the start to the year she would have wanted, no title to this point and her confidence not where she would expect it to be and now has over 1000 points to defend across Indian Wells and Miami. There are five former champions in the draw and we also welcome back Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who has been dealing with a leg injury since her win at Melbourne Park.

Wonderfully ‘normal’ to step away and start a family

In terms of picking a winner this is a head scratcher, we’re waiting for the likes of Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Qinwen Zheng to come good in 2025. The young players like Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider are in the mix and how about the return of former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova? She’s back after 15 months away on maternity leave following the birth of her son, Petr, so happy to see her back.

One thing I was thinking as I was driving to school pick-up the other day was how wonderfully normal it is now for players to step away, start a family and then come back. They no longer have to choose between a career or a family, they now know there is a chance to have both as Belinda Bencic highlighted recently with her partner and daughter, Bella, courtside as she was crowned champion in Abu Dhabi.

Brit Watch in Palm Springs

There are five in the main draw with one of the headline matches seeing Jacob Fearnley drawn to face Buenos Aires champion Joao Fonseca in the opening round, with the winner to face Jack Draper.

Fonseca at the age of 18 has been the talk of the tennis world in recent months, winning Next Gen in December, beating Andrey Rublev at the Australian Open in straight sets and then winning his first tour title. Both players are making their Indian Wells debut and should Fearnley come through, it would be a first professional match between Fearnley and Draper, who grew up playing against each other and teaming up at junior Davis Cups.

The British No 1 is back after pulling out of Dubai saying that he was “taking onboard advice to prioritise my recovery and manage my body after a number of long matches, and give myself the best chance of competing consistently throughout the year”. Considering the disrupted pre-season due to injury, Jack has had some good results with a hard-fought run to the round of 16 in Australia and a final in Doha in the two tournaments he has played.

Former champion Cam Norrie snuck in as the 74th entrant of the 75 direct acceptances and will open his campaign against 21-year-old Luca Nardi. Norrie won their only previous meeting which came on the clay in Rome three years and will be looking to kickstart his season against Nardi, who sits just above him in the rankings at 67.

For the women, great to see Katie Boulter back after a foot injury which meant we haven’t seen the British No 1 since Australia. If you look at the rankings and wonder why the drop, the thing about tennis is you are always chasing your tail and it was this time last year that Katie won the 500 event in San Diego, but after a first-round exit last year in Indian Wells there is an opportunity to get back some of those lost points.

As the 26th seed Katie has a bye into the second round. Her first opponent will be one of Ann Li or Irina-Camelia Begu with former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina waiting in in the third round.

A difficult balance for Raducanu

The other direct entrant is British No 2 Emma Raducanu, who will be playing her first tournament since her recent stalking ordeal in Dubai when a man ‘exhibited fixated behaviour’ towards her which left her in tears during her match with Karolina Muchova. If Emma comes through against world No 52 Moyuka Uchijima it would set up a must-see match against third seed Coco Gauff.

It is impossible for us to put ourselves in Emma’s position as someone who is known around the world, who finds it difficult to go about her normal life without being recognised or approached and then the fear of being followed by someone who feels they know you and have a right to speak to you and be near you.

I imagine it’s a difficult balance for ‘celebrities’ to strike, who allow people a glimpse of their life through social media and to show who they are away from their place of work. This is maybe something they do willingly or are encouraged to do by agents, but it does NOT allow people to take advantage of that, assume they really know the person or to approach them. You do not know them!

Emma has been told she can have added security and the hope is that firstly she feels safe and protected but also that the true fans who are respectful of the players still have the opportunity to get up close to the players. That is important to both fans and players and something that we would not want to lose.

Doping system needs to be fairer and more transparent

I haven’t mentioned Jannik Sinner to this point and I’m wondering how much there is left to say on the subject as he serves his three-month suspension after an agreement was reached between the Italian’s legal team and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The deal was apparently not that straightforward with Sinner wondering why he should accept a ban for something he believes he was innocent of, but in terms of time away from the sport it seems like the right one with expectations of a one-year ban if it had gone to the hearing in April.

And in terms of timing it was scheduling jackpot for the Italian who in all likelihood will return from his ban still as world No 1, two days before the Rome Masters gets underway.

There has been a surprising amount of backlash from other players with Stan Wawrinka saying he ‘no longer believed in a clean sport’, a social media message liked by many and others feeling that he received preferential treatment because of who he is. What is clear is that the system is wrong, it’s not fair and whether you believe Sinner or not – and I do believe him – going forward it needs to be fairer and more transparent.

Prediction time

In terms of predictions I will go for Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka, who have both received nominations for the Laureus World Sports Awards, to reign supreme in the desert where I’m delighted to say I will be reunited with Laura, Tim and Martina. And in terms of challenges for the 2025 season, luckily we missed the 10k in Doha but there is talk of a ‘Bump and Grind Trail’ in Indian Wells which has been described as a ‘challenging steep trail’ that I might try to talk my way out of, despite the amazing views that it promises at the end!

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