Hopes are high for an American woman to lift the title in Indian Wells with four out of the current top 10 players on the Tour coming from the country.
Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys are ranked from third to fifth with Emma Navarro ranked slightly lower at eighth in the world. All of them will be hoping to lift the trophy which hasn’t been won by a home player since Serena Williams in 2001. Williams was also the last American woman to reach the final back in 2016.
“I think that the U.S. women have pretty consistently done really well. I think right now it’s obvious we’re all doing really well,” Keys told reporters on Tuesday.
“I think it’s probably been a little while since there have been so many American women doing as well as they are.
“I’m really excited. I think not only are there the names that everyone obviously knows and are a little bit more established, but there’s also a ton of up-and-comers that are doing really, really well.
“I would not be surprised if you saw some really great results from the U.S. women.”
30-year-old Keys has enjoyed a stellar start to the season by winning the Adelaide International before going on to win her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. She has yet to achieve success in Indian Wells and has only reached the quarter-final stage in one out of 11 appearances. Something she aims to improve on with the help of her resurgence on the Tour.
“I had a little bit of time at home to kind of reset, get back to practice, do a little bit of rehab and get back to 100%. Looking forward to starting the swing in the States,” she said.
Gauff, who is the highest-seeded American woman in the draw, is already a three-time WTA 1000 champion and former US Open winner at the age of 20. 12 months ago she reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells which was her best result at the tournament so far in her career.
“I feel like this is the biggest tournament we (American players) probably have outside of the US Open, and we have to somehow figure out how to bring the Cup home,” said Gauff.
Coming into this year’s event, Gauff hasn’t won a match since Australia after suffering opening losses in Doha and Dubai. However, she isn’t dwelling too much on those losses.
“It’s just one of those things that you just move on and get better,” she said.
“You know the results will come. I’m only 20 years old, and I’m going to be 21 next week. It would be kind of silly for me to think it won’t happen to me again if I’m going to be out here hopefully at least 10 more years.”
There are six American women seeded in this year’s draw.
