By Ricky Dimon
Emma Raducanu got a wild card into the BNP Paribas Open–and needed one
because the entry deadline was before she won the U.S. Open.
What she didn’t get was a favorable draw.
The women’s bracket was revealed on Monday afternoon and Raducanu finds herself
in the same quarter as Elina Svitolina, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep, Elise
Mertens, Jessica Pegula, Victoria Azarenka, and Sloane Stephens. Unseeded and
therefore without a bye, Stephens will meet Heather Watson in round one and
would then run into Pegula.
All four seeds in Raducanu’s eighth of the draw are Grand Slam champions. The
19-year-old Brit famously triumphed at the U.S. Open as a qualifier last month.
Kvitova, Halep, and Azarenka are all multi-time major winners. The third round
in Indian Wells could feature Kvitova vs. Azarenka and Halep vs. Raducanu.
Also in the bottom half of the bracket are 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek, Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, and 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
At the top of the draw, Karolina Pliskova is the No. 1 seed. Pliskova is
ranked third in the world, but No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka
withdrew from the penultimate 1000-point tournament of the season. Sabalenka
tested positive for Covid-19 this past Saturday.
Pliskova could face either Bianca Andreescu or an in-form Anett Kontaveit in
the fourth round. Potential quarterfinal foes for the top-seeded Czech are
French Open and U.S. Open semifinalist Maria Sakkari and recent Chicago
runner-up Ons Jabeur.
The other side of the top half is home to French Open champ Barbora Krejcikova,
Chicago winner Garbine Muguruza, Toronto champion Camila Giorgi, and
17-year-old American Coco Gauff.
Women’s main-draw action in the desert gets underway on Wednesday.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.