Jannik Sinner will be returning to Indian Wells this year after missing the 2025 tournament.
Sinner was banned from tennis for three months last year, which forced him to miss both tournaments in the sunshine double.
The Italian will be attempting to win Indian Wells for the first time this year, as one of the four Masters 1000 titles Sinner has yet to win.
Not only has Sinner entered the singles tournament, but he is also hoping to play doubles alongside a surprise partner.
Jannik Sinner confirmed to have entered Indian Wells doubles with Reilly Opelka
It has now officially been confirmed that Sinner intends to play doubles with Reilly Opelka at Indian Wells, after there were some rumors about a potential partnership between the two.
This comes in spite of Opelka’s criticism of doubles players, for which he received a lot of backlash.
However, they are not currently in the main draw, with Sinner and Opelka currently sitting as the fourth alternates for the tournament.
While they are not yet confirmed to play the doubles tournament, it seems likely that they will make it into the draw either via withdrawals or a wildcard.
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Sinner and Opelka are not the only standout team in the released entry list, with Daniil Medvedev also set to partner an American player.
Medvedev has admitted he does not like playing against Learner Tien, after losing to him three times over the past year, but they will now be on the same side of the court for Indian Wells.
Some of the other notable teams on the entry list include Arthur Fils and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Alexander Bublik and Rajeev Ram, Frances Tiafoe and Brandon Nakashima, Sebastian Korda and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Corentin Moutet and Flavio Cobolli.
There will also be a collaboration between cousins and Shanghai Masters finalists Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech.
With so many singles players entering the Indian Wells doubles draw this year, Coco Gauff’s former coach Brad Gilbert has proposed an idea.
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Gilbert called for a bonus if a player wins both singles and doubles at Indian Wells this year.
Gilbert wrote, “I would like to see 2 million bonus if someone wins singles and doubles at IW, been a very long time since someone won both on the men’s side.”
The last man to win both singles and doubles titles was Jim Courier, who achieved this feat at the 1991 tournament.
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What happened the only other time Jannik Sinner played doubles with Reilly Opelka?
This is actually not the first time that Sinner and Opelka have played doubles together, with their only previous tournament going very well.
At the Atlanta Open in 2021, Sinner and Opelka won the title after beating Jordan Thompson and Steve Johnson in the final.
This remains the only doubles title that Sinner has ever won in his career, and he has not played with Opelka since.
Sinner will now hope this comes to an end, as he and Opelka wait to see if they have made it into the Indian Wells doubles event, which begins on Sunday, March 8.
Before then, Sinner will hope to capture the Qatar Open title, after making an impressive start by beating Tomas Machac in his first match since the Australian Open.
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