Two-time champion Christels, who debuted at the BNP Paribas Open in 10 years, will face Soniakova in the first round of Indian Wells, while Halep and Radukanu are likely to face off in the third round.
On Wednesday, he returned to the WTA after a two-and-a-half-year absence at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Monday's signing table introduces fun premature encounters to the season's final WTA 1000 event.
Former world number one Cristalls won the regular wild card and will compete with world number 53 Soniakova. The winner will face another former world number one and multiple Grand Slam champions in the second round - 10 seed Kerber.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Christers won in Indian Wells in 2003 and 2005, but she is still seeking her first Tour title since retiring in 2012. She returned in 2020 and lost to Muguruzza, Konta and Alexanderlova in three matches last year. In her season debut in Chicago last week, she lost to Ms. Xie in three sets.
Another Grand Slam champion in the first round of this week's tournament is 2017 U.S. Open champion Stephens, who will play against Watson. The winner of this match will face 19th seed Pegula in the second round.
2017 U.S. Open runner-up Case will face six-time Grand Slam Quarter-Finalist Canepi in the first round, which will be an uphill battle. The winner of this match will face another great player, The 9th seed Pavlyuchenkova.
The second and third rounds of the tournament are even more exciting, such as the game between two-time Grand Slam champion Halep and U.S. Open champion Raducannu that may take place in the third round.
Former world Number One Halep, the 11th seed of the tournament, must first defeat Zhang Shuai or Koschyuk in the second round, while the 17th seed Raducanu needs to beat the winner between Serrano and Sassnovic.
Raducano will make his Indian Wells debut. It's her first return to the tour since she won her first Grand Slam title in New York. Ranked 150th in the world at the time, she became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title and has since moved up to 22nd in the WTA rankings.
Another third-round showdown between Grand Slam champions could also be seen if both Kvitova and Azarenka win the second round. No. 7 seed Kvitova must first beat Ruth or a qualifier, while No. 27 seed Azarenka will face off between Reinette and Peterson as the winner.
World No. 3 Kapliskova and World No. 4 Svatek are the top two seeds in the tournament. Top seed Kapliskova qualified for the WTA year-end finals on Monday, where she will meet either Zheng Saisai or wild card player McNally in the second round.
No. 2 seed Swatake is hitting a spot in the WTA year-end finals in Guadalajara and she is likely to face Marttic in the second round.
No. 6 seed Sakkari is currently in a delicate position to qualify for the WTA Year-End Finals, but her second round will be tough. She will face Olympic singles silver medalist Vandrosova or Olympic doubles silver medalist Golubić.
No. 5 seed Muguruza, like Sakkari and Svatek, is targeting a place in Guadalajara. She will face TomJanovic or a qualifier in the second round. It is worth mentioning that Muguruza won the ninth WTA singles title of her career in Chicago last Sunday.
No. 3 seed Kretzkova, who has locked up a singles and doubles spot in the WTA Finals (paired with Sinyakova), will face Hibino or a qualifier after the first round of the bye.
Two Canadian supernovae are also definitely worth looking forward to. Defending Paris Open champion Andreescu and 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Fernandez are both seeded players. The 16th seed, Andreescu, who won the tournament in 2019, will meet Lisque or the qualifiers in the second round. 23rd seed Fernandez will face Either Cornett or a qualifier after the first-round bye.
(Source: House of Tennis Translated by: Ai Feng)
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