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These Eight Players Have The Momentum Heading Into Tennis Paradise
3 Min Read · March 3, 2025
Two months of the 2025 tennis season has already passed us by. More than enough time to determine which players are looking tough to beat as they head into the California desert for the 2025 BNP Paribas Open.
Scroll down to read more about four men and four women that are carrying scorching-hot form into Indian Wells.
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Madison Keys had the courage to make wholesale changes to her already accomplished game during the off-season, and she was rewarded with a maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne. Keys won 14 of 15 matches in January and finished her month with a dramatic victory over World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final.
This week in the desert, the 30-year-old American will play her first competitive match as a Grand Slam champion and a Top 5 member, with momentum on her side.
Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime has been a tour de force thus far in 2025. The resurgent 24-year-old has raised trophies in Adelaide and Montpellier, and reached the final in Dubai over the past weekend, where he became the fifth player to compete in three ATP finals during the first two months of a season since 2010.
Prior to 2025, Clara Tauson’s past few seasons had been marred by injuries that sank her ranking and caused many to overlook the promise she displayed as a teenager when she won a pair of WTA titles before turning 19.
This year, playing at full fitness and with renewed purpose, Tauson has hit the ground running. She won her third career title in Auckland in January, and recently took out World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in Dubai en route to the final. She currently sits at 15-4 on the season with eight Top 50 wins.
Leave it to the garrulous Greek to come up with the perfect one-liner to sum up his recent struggles after he raised the trophy in Dubai over the weekend. “They said my game was sinking, so I got myself a boat.”
The 17-year-old phenom has made a habit out of winning ever since she hit the tour. Already a Grand Slam semifinalist entering the season, Mirra Andreeva made her mark at the 1000-level in February when she defeated three former major champions – Marketa Vondrousova, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina – on the way to becoming the youngest champion in Dubai history.
Entering Indian Wells at No. 9 in the world, Andreeva is currently the youngest woman inside the WTA’s Top-10 since 2007.
Speaking of teenagers with jaw-dropping talent…
Brazil’s Joao Fonseca made his Grand Slam debut in style in January, taking out ninth-ranked Andrey Rublev in the first round. He would enter the Top 100 in February, and celebrate his new ranking with a title on the red clay of Buenos Aires, where he became the tenth-youngest player to win a title in ATP history.
This week the 18-year-old wild card will test his game on the gritty hard courts of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden – we can’t wait to see how he fares.
2025 has already been a special year for Amanda Anisimova. The 23-year-old stormed to her biggest career title in Doha, where she became the lowest-ranked champion in tournament history, and the first American to triumph in Qatar since 2002. Anisimova made her Top 20 debut last month and owns a 9-3 record on the season.
The Canadian southpaw is finally free of the debilitating knee injury that sabotaged his progress and caused him to spend most of 2024 outside of the Top 100. And it shows in his game. In full flight once again, the 25-year-old has been making up for lost time. He won his first ATP 500 title in Dallas, where he defeated three Top 10 opponents, then stretched his career-best winning streak to eight before losing in the semifinals in Acapulco on Friday.
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