Indian Wells Open seeds: Sabalenka No 1, Gauff leads six Americans, youngsters Mboko and Eala on list
World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka will have the best seat in the house for the Indian Wells Open as she will be the top seed while she could face either Elena Rybakina or Coco Gauff in the semi-finals.
Sabalenka will go into the first line of the draw sheet with world No 2 Iga Swiatek – who won the tournament in 2022 and 2024 – headlining the bottom half of the draw with Rybakina and Gauff the next two names on the list.
There is no doubt that both Sabalenka and Swiatek will look to avoid Australian Open champion Rybakina before the final, as the Kazakh star beat both en route to her title run at Melbourne Park.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka was also the top seed last year, but she lost the final against teenager Mirra Andreeva while she was beaten by Rybakina in the 2024 final.
Gauff is one of six Americans who are seeeded for their home WTA 1000 tournament in California as she is followed by Jessica Pegula and Amanda Anisimova while 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys will be seeded 15th, rising star Iva Jovic 18th and Emma Navarro 25th.
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The 18-year-old Andreeva will defend her title from eighth place with Elina Svitolina and Victoria Mboko completing the top 10.
Mboko will make her debut at the WTA 1000 event, as a year ago she was still ranked outside the top 180 and competing at ITF level.
The Canadian finished runner-up to Karolina Muchova at the Qatar Open in mid February, but both then skipped the Dubai Tennis Championships with Mboko struggling with a leg injury while Muchova pulled out due to fatigue.
The 19-year-old Mboko, meanwhile, is one of five players under 20 who are seeded at Indian Wells, along with Andreeva, Jovic (aged 18), the 19th-seeded Maya Joint (29) and the 20-year-old Filipina star Alex Eala (31).
Eala, who also didn’t play in California last year as she failed to make the cut, is seeded for the first time at a WTA 1000 event for the first time in her career following her surge into the top 35 of the rankings.
Naomi Osaka, who won the title in 2018, is the other former champion who is seeded as she sits at No 15 while two-time runner-up Maria Sakkari completes the list at No 32.
WTA Indian Wells Top 32 Seeds
1. Aryna Sabalenka
2. Iga Swiątek
3. Elena Rybakina
4. Coco Gauff
5. Jessica Pegula
6. Amanda Anisimova
7. Jasmine Paolini
8. Mirra Andreeva
9. Elina Svitolina
10. Victoria Mboko
11. Ekaterina Alexandrova
12. Belinda Bencic
13. Karolina Muchova
14. Linda Noskova
15. Madison Keys
16. Naomi Osaka
17. Clara Tauson
18. Iva Jovic
19. Liudmila Samsonova
20. Emma Navarro
21. Diana Shnaider
22. Elise Mertens
23. Anna Kalinskaya
24. Zheng Qinwen
25. Emma Raducanu
26. Jeļena Ostapenko
27. Leylah Fernandez
28. Marta Kostyuk
29. Maya Joint
30. Wang Xinyu
31. Alexandra Eala
32. Maria Sakkari
