Winners and Losers from Indian Wells 2025

Image credit: Clive Brunskill, Getty Images

The Masters season of the tennis year really felt like it finally got underway this past two weeks in California as Indian Wells took place on the outdoor hard courts.

Big players with disappointing starts to the year on the men’s side had chances to make amends and really get their season going with a Jannik Sinner shaped hole being left in the draw, the Italian currently serving his 3-month ban for doping offences, a scandal that rocked the tennis world at the tail-end of 2024.

The women’s side of the draw had a similar feel to it, with big names such as Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka still yet to pick up their first big trophies of the year, and American favourites Madison Keys and Coco Gauff looking to make an impact at home.

ATP

Winner – Jack Draper

Jack Draper claimed his maiden Masters title of his career at Indian Wells, and he had come into the tournament feeling confident after a strong showing in Doha, narrowly losing the final to Andrey Rublev.

He demonstrated that confidence with a demolition job over young star Joao Fonseca, smashing him 6-0 in the second-set in a comprehensive two-set victory.

His next victory over Jenson Brooksy demonstrated differing qualities to those he showed in his victory over the Brazilian in the round prior as he overcome adversity in the first-set, coming from 1-4 down to win 7-5.

He recorded a big win over America’s main hope for the tournament in former winner Taylor Fritz, reaching his first Indian Wells quarter-final as he won 7-5, 6-4.

Another American hope fell in the following round as he defeated Ben Shelton, once again in straight-sets, where he played some phenomenal tennis.

Now we always know that Jack had the talent and the ability, it had just been the injuries that had plagued him and held him back from really reaching that next level, and his win in the semi-final showed glimpses of the next level to Jack Draper’s game that we have been waiting to see .

He won the first-set against Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, playing an incredible level against the two-time champion, but he faced the ferocity that we expect from Alcaraz when the Spaniard responded with a 6-0 win in the second-set.

Jack ended Alcaraz’s 16-match Indian Wells win streak in the final set, winning 6-4, and finally setting up the chance to fight for one of the biggest prizes in the sport.

He comfortably defeated Holger Rune in the final, 6-2, 6-2, and added his name to the expanding list of new Masters 1000 champions we have seen so far this season.

Beating four top 20 players on the way to the title, it felt like a real coming-of-age performance from Draper, and it will be interesting to see what the season holds for him if he can keep this level up.

Loser – Alexander Zverev

The number one seed for Indian Wells with no Sinner at the tournament, Alexander Zverev hadn’t had the greatest few weeks heading into the tournament. Losing in the Rio quarter-finals against Francisco Cerundolo and following that up with an early Acapulco exit against rising star Learner Tien, the pressure was on for a big performance to break this rut at Indian Wells.

With the disappointment of losing another Grand Slam final at the start of the year in Australia clearly weighing on him, he struggled to shift that weight once against at Indian Wells as he was dumped out in his first match against Tallon Griekspoor.

Tallon is no push-over, demonstrating his quality when he clung on for dear life to beat Daniil Medvedev the week prior, but it was definitely a match that Zverev should have been winning.

An all too familiar tale for Zverev, especially on the biggest of occasions, Zverev had the chance to serve for the match against Griekspoor but did eventually lose the tie-break, handing Griekspoor the biggest win of his career.

WTA

Winner – Mirra Andreeva

What a few weeks Mirra Andreeva has had, as the 17-year-old picked up her second Masters title of her career, in the space of just 22 days no less

Starting a tournament as a top 10 player for the first time, Andreeva fought through a thrilling two-set match against Varvara Gracheva in the opening round, with her mental resilience being tremendously strong for her age, being down 1-4 in the second-set and still coming back to claim the set.

She once again defeated Clara Tauson in a rematch of the Dubai final, handing her a second-set bagel with another top display.

Her game is incredibly complete at this age, with no obvious flaws, and it was a flawless fourth round performances as she only dropped 3 games across two-sets against Elena Rybakina, with the Kazakh really struggling to handle Andreeva’s play.

She kept things rolling against Elina Svitolina with another two-set victory in the quarter-final, reaching her first-ever Indian Wells semi-final in the process, and becoming the youngest woman to reach that stage since fellow countrywoman Maria Sharapova in 2005.

Having recently beat Iga Swiatek in Dubai, she would have come into that semi-final contest with the reigning champion with more confidence that most would have when facing the imperious Iga

She played an amazing first-set, winning the tiebreak, but Iga quickly flipped a switch and saw Andreeva lose her first set of the tournament with a 6-1 thrashing.

Andreeva remained composed, winning the final set 6-3, and beat Swiatek for the second time in the span of a few weeks.

Her record against the best held up in the final, beating world number-one Aryna Sabalenka 2-6 6-4 6-3 in the final to win back-to-back WTA 1000 titles, thus becoming the youngest Indian Wells winner since Serena Williams in 1999.

Andreeva isn’t even in her prime yet and is comfortably defeating some of the best, most-established WTA stars in the sport.

She reaches a new career high of number six in the world after the tournament, and don’t be surprised if magnificent Mirra claims the sunshine double with a victory in Miami as she continues to defy expectations for a 17-year-old.

Loser – Coco Gauff

Coco is a special player, an ambassador of the sport who uses her platform perfectly to speak up for the issues that she believes in

She hasn’t looked like the Coco Gauff we know over the weeks heading into Indian Wells, coming into the tournament on a three-match losing streak.

She squeezed through a difficult opener against Moyuka Uchijima, almost bottling a 4-0 lead in the third set, needing a tiebreak to get past the Japanese.

Facing Maria Sakkari in the following round presented a tough test in the form of last-year’s finalist, but despite needing 6 match points to do so, Gauff eventually got over the line.

However, not playing at her dazzling best, a game player would have the potential of knocking her out, and she faced that in the form of Belinda Bencic. Taking a year out to become a mother, Bencic returned to the tour in October 2024, and revenge was on her mind after losing to Gauff in Australia.

Bencic came from a set-down to defeat Gauff, reaching her first WTA 1000 semi-final as a mother, and Coco’s poor start to 2025 continued.

She has the chance to redeem herself with another home tournament in Miami this week, but things are looking bleak at the moment.