This year’s Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev are among singles stars who will take to doubles court in Indian Wells.
Sinner will team up with his friend Lorenzo Sonego in a first-round match against Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.
Sinner and Sonego beat Novak Djokovic and Miomir Kecmanovic in the Davis Cup semifinal between Italy and Serbia en route to Italy’s first Davis Cup title since 1976. Sinner started the 2024 season with two consecutive doubles titles at the Australian Open and Rotterdam.
Khachanov and Rublev teamed up eight times in 2023 in doubles tournaments. The Russian players won in Madrid and reached the semifinal in Beijing. During the 2024 season Rublev beat Emil Ruusuovori in the Hong Kong final and lost in the quarter final against Sinner. Last February he lost to Alex De Minaur in the quarter final in Rotterdam and Jakub Mesnik in the quarter final in Doha. Khachanov won the Doha title beating Mesnik in the final and reached the semifinal in Marseille.
The winner of this match will face either US singles stars Ben Shelton and Christopher Eubanks or doubles specialists Marcell Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.
Defending champions Rohann Bopanna and Matthew Ebden have been drawn in the same section and wiil start their campaign against Sandre Gille and Joran Villegen. Bopanna and Ebden won the Australian Open doubles title last January beating Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.
Fourth seeds Santiago Gonzales and Neal Skupski will clash against Francisco Cerundolo and Cameron Norrie in the first round.
The Australian team formed by Alex De Minaur and Alexei Popyrin will clash against third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, who won their second consecutive doubles titles at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin in 2023. De Minaur finished runner-up to Sinner in the Rotterdam singles final and won his second consecutive title in Acapulco. The winners will take on either Felix Auger Aliassime and Sebastian Korda or doubles specialists Lloyd Glasspool and Jean Julien Rojer.
Grigor Dimitrov and Daniel Evans will clash against Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev in the bottom quarter of the draw. Second seeds Austin Kraijcek and Ivan Dodig will clash against Hubert Hurkacz and Tallon Griekspoor. Steve Johnson will team up against Tommy Paul in the match against Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic. Koolhof won the Wimbledon doubles title with Neal Skupski.
