Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducanu, and Venus Williams will all play at the 2024 Indian Wells Open, and they will all face qualifiers in the first round of the WTA 1000 tournament.
Qualifiers are interesting in tennis because sometimes they end up being really good players who have a tremendous run. It's not that uncommon on the WTA Tour, as we saw Raducanu win the US Open as a qualifier.
Anna Kalinskaya also had a deep run in Dubai as a qualifier recently, so getting a qualifier in the draw doesn't necessarily mean that it will be an easy match. Quite a few times, those qualifiers are very motivated and end up beating even the best players.
Osaka, Raducanu, and Venus Williams will have to navigate this at the upcoming Indian Wells Open because they were all paired up with qualifiers.
Obviously, it's impossible to say which players they'll play because the qualifiers are ongoing, but there are some solid players in the draw, so the first-round match could get tricky for all three of them.
Osaka's form picked up steam at the Qatar Open, where she played rather well and won a couple of matches. She's going to enjoy returning to Indian Wells because it's an event where she can do really well with the way she's been playing.
Raducanu doesn't have good memories at the Indian Wells Open, but she will have a decent chance to pick up a few wins here if she plays well. The higher bounce will certainly give her time to unload with her tremendous baseline play.
Venus Williams is the X factor. Nobody really knows what to expect from the veteran as she didn't play this year but also played well the last time she did play. A win would be huge for her, so let's see if the draw gives her an easy opponent.
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