Indian Wells Open: Djokovic forms ‘all-Greek’ team with Tsitsipas as Dubai trio, Sinner also enter
Novak Djokovic has signed up for the men’s doubles at the Indian Wells Open and he will form an “all-Greek” team with Stefanos Tsitsipas while Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov are also in the draw despite their late arrival in California.
Tennis great Djokovic is no stranger to the doubles scene as he usually enters a couple of tournaments every season and last year he competed at the Qatar Open and the Brisbane International.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner has accepted a wildcard for the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells and he will make his 2026 doubles debut alongside Tsitsipas on Saturday.
Djokovic – who has not played competitive tennis since losing the final of the Australian Open against Carlos Alcaraz – and his family swapped Serbia for Greece in September 2025 and his children Stefan (11) and Tara (8) have been enrolled at the St Lawrence College, a British school in Athens.
During a recent interview, the 38-year-old stated: “I do feel like a Greek. I still have to learn Greek.”
He has also formed a close relationship with fellow tennis star and former world No 3 Tsitispas as the Greek revealed he invited the Serbian for dinner in his hometown of Vouliagmeni, saying: “There was a lot of insightful stuff that I got out of it. Very interesting guy to talk to on a deep level. And I really had a lot of fun spending time with him.”
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And the pair will continue to bond at the Indian Wells Open as they will share the court in the doubles, but they have a tough opening assignment as they will take on third seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.
Arevalo and Pavic finished runner-up at the Dubai Tennis Championships last week and they were part of a group of tennis players who arrived late in California after flights in the Middle East were cancelled following Israel and the United States’ military action against Iran.
Singles stars Medvedev, Rublev and Khachanov were also forced to travel from Dubai to Oman via car and before they were able to fly to Turkey and eventually the United States.
All three of them will also feature in the doubles as Medvedev will play alongside rising star Learner Tien with Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot their first-round opponents.
Rublev and Khachanov are regular partners on the doubles scene as they reached seven finals – winning the 2023 Madrid Open – and they will start their campaign against sixth seeds Hugo Nys Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
World No 2 Jannik Sinner has also signed up as he will team up with Reilly Opelka with the duo taking on top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the first round.
