City: Indian Wells, California
Site: Indian Wells Tennis Garden
Date: March 11-21, 2010
Prize Money: $3,645,000 (on-site)
Draw: 96 singles/32 doubles
Surface: Hard

The BNP Paribas Open, the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the year, is one of four outdoor hard-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in North America (Miami, Toronto, and Cincinnati are the others), while three are on clay (Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid) and two are later in the year (Shanghai, Paris).

Tournament Fast Facts:

This year’s draw features an impressive field with 43 of the Top 50 players (15 of 20) in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings. There have been 16 different ATP World Tour winners in 18 tournaments this season and all 16 are in the draw.

Former champions: 3 – Rafael Nadal (2007, ‘09), Novak Djokovic (2008), Roger Federer (2004-06)

Wild cards: 5 – Robby Ginepri, Ryan Harrison, Jesse Levine, Carlos Moya, David Nalbandian

Qualifiers: 12 – Thiago Alves, Kevin Anderson, Brian Dabul, Ramon Delgado, Stefan Koubek, Yen-Hsun Lu, Marinko Matosevic, Ricardo Mello, Bjorn Phau, Bobby Reynolds, Rainer Schuettler, Tim Smyczek

Youngest in Draw: Ryan Harrison (17 years, 9 months)

Oldest in Draw: Rainer Schuettler (33 years, 10 months)

Countries (31) in Draw: U.S. (14), Spain (12), France, Germany (10 players each); Argentina (6), Brazil, Croatia, Italy (4 players each)

2010 ATP Tournament Winners in Draw (16): Marin Cilic (2), Juan Carlos Ferrero (2). One Each – Marcos Baghdatis, Thomaz Bellucci, Nikolay Davydenko, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Ernests Gulbis,
John Isner, Michael Llodra, Feliciano Lopez, Sam Querrey, Andy Roddick, Robin Soderling, and Fernando Verdasco.

Main Draw Highlights:

• There are three former champions in the draw, led by defending champ Rafael Nadal, who also won in 2007. Novak Djokovic (2008) and World No. 1 Roger Federer (2004-06) are the other former winners in the draw. Federer and Nadal are appearing in their first tournament since the Australian Open. Federer captured his 16th career Grand Slam crown, defeating Andy Murray in the final. Nadal retired with a right knee injury in the quarter-finals against Murray on Jan. 26.

• The Indian Wells champion has been ranked in the Top 4 every year since 2001 with Alex Corretja the last winner outside the Top 10 at No. 26 in 2000.

• Federer enters as the top seed for the sixth time in seven years (except ’09) and the three-time winner has a 28-6 career mark. He has lost in the semi-finals the past two years.

• In the first quarter of the draw, Federer opens against the winner of Victor Hanescu and Juan Ignacio Chela. The first seed Federer could face is No. 27 Marcos Baghdatis in the third round. Federer is 6-0 against the Cypriot, who is off to a career-best 15-5 start. In the fourth round, Federer could meet No. 14 Radek Stepanek (Federer leads 8-2) or No. 18 Tommy Robredo (Federer leads 9-0). In the quarter finals, the possible seeds Federer could play are No. 7 Andy Roddick (Federer leads 19-2), No. 12 Gael Monfils (Federer 5-0), No. 22 Jurgen Melzer (never met) or No. 30 Janko Tipsarevic (Federer leads 2-0). Wild card and former World No. 3 David Nalbandian plays Austrian qualifier Stefan Koubek and the winner would take on Melzer. Frenchman Richard Gasquet meets Simon Greul with the winner to face Monfils (tied 2-2 vs. Gasquet).

• In the second quarter, No. 4 and last year’s finalist Murray, who is 12-4 in his career in Indian Wells, takes on the winner of wild card Robby Ginepri and Andreas Seppi. The first seed Murray could meet is No. 32 Igor Andreev in the third round (never met). In the fourth round, Murray could play No. 13 David Ferrer (tied 1-1) or No. 23 Ivo Karlovic (Murray leads 3-0). In the quarter-finals, Murray’s possible seeded opponents are No. 6 Robin Soderling (Murray leads 2-1), No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Murray leads 2-1), No. 24 Albert Montanes (Murray leads 3-0) or No. 28 Feliciano Lopez (Murray leads 2-0). Unseeded James Blake, who reached the final in 2006, takes on Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the first round with the winner to play Ferrer. Tsonga could meet countryman Michael Llodra or Aussie qualifier Marinko Matosevic in the second round.

• In the bottom half of the draw (third quarter), No. 3 and defending champion Nadal, 22-3 lifetime in Indian Wells, opens against the winner of two qualifiers. Nadal’s first seeded opponent he could face is No. 31 Julien Benneteau in the third round (tied 1-1). Benneteau will take on a qualifier or Mario Ancic, who is making his first ATP World Tour appearance of the season. In the fourth round, Nadal could meet No. 15 John Isner (never met) or No. 17 Sam Querrey (Nadal leads 3-0). Davis Cup teammates Isner and Querrey met in the Memphis final last month with Querrey winning in three sets. They also won the doubles title there. In the quarter-finals, Nadal’s possible seeded opponents are No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko (Davydenko leads 5-4), No. 10 Fernando Verdasco (Nadal leads 9-0), No. 19 Tomas Berdych (Nadal leads 6-3) or No. 29 Viktor Troicki (Nadal leads 3-0). Davydenko plays the winner of Marco Chiudinelli and Ernests Gulbis, who is coming off his first ATP World Tour title in Delray Beach. The Russian is 2-0 against both players. German Andreas Beck, who has been sidelined with a wrist injury, makes his season debut against qualifier Ramon Delgado with the winner to meet Verdasco.

• In the final quarter, No. 2 Djokovic, who won the title two years ago and was runner-up in 2007, brings a seven-match winning streak into the tournament. The Serb is coming off a repeat title in Dubai and two
Davis Cup match wins against the U.S. last weekend. He plays his first match against German Michael Berrer (Djokovic leads 1-0) or ’08 runner-up Mardy Fish (Djokovic leads 3-0). No. 25 Philipp Kohlschreiber is the first seed Djokovic could meet in the third round (tied 1-1). In the fourth round, No. 16 Gilles Simon (Djokovic leads 4-1) or No. 20 Ivan Ljubicic (Djokovic leads 5-1) are possible opponents. Ljubicic will meet the winner of Taylor Dent and 17-year-old wild card Ryan Harrison, the youngest player in the field. In the quarter-finals, Djokovic’s seeded opponents include No. 8 Marin Cilic (Djokovic leads 4-0), No. 11 Juan Carlos Ferrero (tied 1-1), No. 21 Juan Monaco (Djokovic leads 3-0) or No. 26 Thomaz Bellucci (never met). Wild card Carlos Moya, who reached the final in 1999 (l. to Philippoussis) and reached No. 1 afterwards on Mar. 15, 1999, takes on qualifier Tim Smyczek .