BNP Paribas Open: Preview, schedule and how to watch the tennis masters live in Indian Wells (2024)

The best tennis players in the world are California dreamin' for the next two weeks.

The top men and women in the sport descend on Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Open, the first combined 1000-level event of the year, 6-17 March, coming some five weeks after January's Australian Open.

AO champs Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka will look to duplicate their successes from Down Under, though Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina are the defending champions in the desert.

All eyes will be on Novak Djokovic, a five-time winner in Indian Wells, who makes his first appearance at the event in five years after missing several due to his unvaccinated status and U.S. travel restrictions.

Such restrictions are gone, but Djokovic is set to be joined by fellow veteran and legend Rafael Nadal, who looks to continue his gradual return to the sport after a hip injury took him out for most of 2023. He played three matches in January in Brisbane before foregoing the Australian Open after aggravating a different injury.

Djokovic, Nadal, Sinner and Alcaraz feature in a men's field that will include all the top ATP stars, including world No.4 Daniil Medvedev as well as the top American, No.10 Taylor Fritz, the 2022 winner here.

Rybakina beat Sabalenka here in last year's final, and the women's field also has world No.1 and 2022 champ Iga Swiatek, No.3 Coco Gauff and a host of other top stars. Former world No.1s Naomi Osaka, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki have received wild cards into the event.

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Indian Wells Masters: AO champs Sinner, Sabalenka eye more hardware

It's been since 2016 that Djokovic has hoisted the trophy at this event, where he's 50-9 in his career. He's just 1-3 in his last four Indian Wells matches, though those date back to 2017-19.

The 36-year-old fell to Sinner in the Australian Open semi-finals, marking the first time the Serbian had lost in the semis or final in Melbourne in his career.

Sinner came from two sets to love down in the AO final to beat Medvedev, who is now 1-4 in Grand Slam finals in his career. That gave the Italian, still just 22, his maiden major, and he's a perfect 12-0 this season with a title indoors in Rotterdam in mid-February.

Nadal, who's 37, will temper expectations on the California hard courts as he eyes the clay later this season - both for an attempted 15th Roland-Garros crown, as well as the coming Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024, which will be held on those same RG grounds.

Could-be Olympic doubles partner Alcaraz has a looming question mark over his form, the reigning IW champ having gone down with a right leg injury in his first match in Rio. He and Nadal played in an exhibition clash on Sunday (3 March) in Las Vegas.

Sabalenka felt untouchable in Australia, not dropping a set and successfully defending her 2023 title, beating Zheng Qinwen in the final having taken out Gauff in a tightly-contested semi-final.

The American Gauff will turn 20 midway through the event, and looks to become the first American woman to win the singles title here since Serena Williams in 2001.

Swiatek clinched the title at the WTA 1000 stop in Doha in early February, though it was 28-year-old Jasmine Paolini, the 29th-ranked Italian, who stunned for the Dubai 1000 title the following week.

It's Venus' first event since losing in the first round of the US Open in August, the 43-year old set to play in both Indian Wells and Miami in March. She and Wozniacki are joined by fellow wild cards Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open winner, and Spain's Paula Badosa, who won this title in 2021.

The top 32 seeds in both the men's and women's singles draw receive first-round byes.

Indian Wells Masters: Schedule

The two-week event has introduced a new all-quarter-final day on the second Thursday (14 March). All times listed are local California time, Pacific Standard (PST, GMT -8).

You can see a full preliminary tournament schedule here. The daily order of play is here.

Wednesday-Thursday, 6-7 March

11:00 - Men's & women's first round

Friday-Saturday, 8-9 March

11:00 - Men's & women's second round

Sunday-Monday, 10-11 March

11:00 - Men's & women's third round

Tuesday-Wednesday, 12-13 March

11:00 - Men's & women's fourth round

Thursday, 14 March

11:00 - Men's & women's quarter-finals

Friday, 15 March

11:00 - Women's semi-finals; men's doubles final

Saturday, 16 March

11:00 - Men's semi-finals; women's doubles final

Sunday, 17 March

11:00 - Women's final; followed by men's final

Indian Wells Masters: How to watch live

The BNP Paribas Open is an ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000, meaning it will air on the respective tours' broadcast partners.

For American fans, the actions is televised exclusively on U.S. carrier Tennis Channel, as well as its streaming platform T2.

Other key regions include:

• Australia: beIN Sports
• Canada: TSN (and DAZN/TVA: Additional women's coverage)
• Denmark: TV2 Denmark
• France: Eurosport (men); beIN Sports (women)
• Germany, Austria, Switzerland: Sky Deutschland (men); Sky Sport (women)
• Great Britain: Sky UK
• Greece: OTE (men); Novasports (women)
• India: Sony/MSM (men); Tennis Channel (women)
• Italy: Sky Italia
• Japan: WOWOW; Gaora Sports Channel (men); DAZN (women)
• People's Republic of China: CCTV
• Poland: Polsat (men); Canal+ (women)
• Serbia: Sportklub
• South America: ESPN International
• Spain: Telefonica/Movistar (men); Tennis Channel & TVA (women)
• Tunisia: beIN Sports

Depending on your location, you can also find men's matches streaming on TennisTV.com and women's matches on WTA TV.