Andreescu, Stephens join Venus Williams among Indian Wells wild cards

Canada's Bianca Andreescu and American Sloane Stephens will join seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams as former Grand Slam champions who have been awarded wild cards into the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Andreescu, who won the Indian Wells title in 2019 as an 18-year-old and went on to win the US Open later that same year, is back at Indian Wells for the first time since 2023. The Canadian is back up to No. 164 in the WTA rankings after winning two ITF World Tennis Tour titles this year.

Stephens won the US Open in 2017 and her best performance at Indian Wells has been a quarterfinal finish in 2014. Now ranked No. 775 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz after missing six months of the season last year, the 32-year-old won three matches in qualifying to make the main draw at last month's Australian Open.

The pair join Williams, who was announced as a wild card last week. The 45-year-old will become the oldest player to play a main draw match at Indian Wells and will be looking to win her first match of the season. Williams is a three-time semifinalist at the event, most recently in 2018.

Also receiving wild cards are 2024 Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic, former Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady, reigning French Open girls' singles champion Lilli Tagger, as well as Americans Alycia Parks and Katie Volynets.

Qualifying wild cards were handed out to Julieta Pareja, Emerson Jones, Mary Stoiana, Elvina Kalieva, Elizabeth Mandlik and Akasha Urhobo.

Main-draw matches at the 2026 BNP Paribas Open will begin Wednesday, March 4, with qualifying starting March 1. The singles will feature a 96-player draw, including the world's Top 10 players, while 32 teams will compete for the doubles title.