Schedule and Preview Indian Wells Open 2025 Day Eight Wednesday March 12 including Gauff-Bencic, Draper-Fritz and Dimitrov-Alcaraz

After a rain delayed Tuesday, we head into Wednesday with the schedule now set for the Last 16 ties remaining at Indian Wells. One that features some real top ties that we run through in this preview.

The schedule is packed enough that World No.1 in the WTA, Aryna Sabalenka won't play Stadium 1 and instead is set for Stadium 2. Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Carlos Alcaraz and a real top tie in Jack Draper v Taylor Fritz await.

Gauff v Bencic opens

Opening up proceedings is a repeat of the Australian Open fourth round where for a set, Coco Gauff was seriously pushed by the 28-year-old who had just returned after becoming a mother for the first time.

Back then, it was 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in favour of Gauff. But since then, it has been an interesting time for both players. The American aside from this week hasn't really won a match while Bencic has won the Abu Dhabi Open and was only beaten in Dubai by Emma Navarro.

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But this week she has shown that the form from Abu Dhabi wasn't a flash in the pan. After defeating Tatjana Maria early in the piece, she then defeated Amanda Anisimova who won in Doha recently so is in form herself. Followed by Diana Shnaider who is not having the impact she had last season but is still a top 10 player in waiting. Bencic will return to the top 50 only a few months into her return which is pretty mind boggling especially as she has only played smaller tournaments followed by her resurgent run in the past three months.

It semi mirrors that of Karolina Muchova albeit with a child being born over a wrist injury. The Czech who lost to Iga Swiatek yesterday had such an impact at the end of last year that she returned to the higher echelons of the rankings despite having not played for a year.

Gauff leads their Head to Head 2-1 having also defeated her in Washington back in August 2023. But Bencic won their first meeting four years ago in Adelaide. Can she continue to thrive or will Gauff put out that light?

Vekic v Keys to follow; Shelton, Sabalenka and De Minaur all on second stadium

Following that tie on Stadium 1 is one which sees Donna Vekic in action against the Australian Open champion, Madison Keys.

Keys breezed through her return to action and perhaps was expecting to face Emma Navarro. Especially given the form of Vekic who hit a bit of a slump to start the year. But tennis as ever can change week to week and Vekic is back on song.

She took down Navarro after defeating Elina Avanesyan herself another spoiler in the draw. But Keys will be a different test as she showed no signs of letting up despite having nearly two months off.

Sabalenka has been shunted onto Stadium 2 as top seed.

In that Australian Open final, Keys defeated Aryna Sabalenka and just after Keys and Vekic, it is the turn of Sabalenka on Stadium 2. Perhaps due to the sheer craziness of the men's matches to come, it has been shunted off and also in Kartal despite being a great story, Sabalenka will be expected to ease through.

It starts on Stadium 2 with Brandon Nakashima v Ben Shelton in an all American tie before Alex de Minaur aims to continue his terrific year. He faces Francisco Cerundolo. Jasmine Paolini was the breakout player of 2024 but has struggled as expected to defend the points she accrued in her initial breakout this time last year. But she is on the verge of the Quarter-Finals last up on Wednesday as she faces Liudmila Samsonova.

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Draper v Fritz and Alcaraz v Dimitrov headline

Perhaps the two ties of the day come in the form of firstly Jack Draper facing Taylor Fritz.

The Brit has seen off Joao Fonseca and then a resurgent Jenson Brooksby. While for Fritz, it has been Matteo Gigante and Alejandro Tabilo. Interestingly with Fritz is while Draper was thriving in the Middle East, he solely played Dallas and Delray Beach last month.

Two poor results followed so it's how he bounces back from here. It is 2-2 in their Head to Head with Draper edging out their last meeting in 2024 in Paris 7-6, 4-6, 6-4. Fritz won in the Olympics and Munich.

Then onto the main match as Carlos Alcaraz who after the demise of Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic and of course Jannik Sinner not playing is the huge favourite.

He faces Grigor Dimitrov who he doesn't have as clean cut a record against. He leads their Head to Head 3-2 and is expected widely to seal the win but it might not be as easy as that.

Alcaraz lost their most recent meeting on a similar surface last year in Miami 6-2, 6-4 one round later in the Quarter-Finals. But Alcaraz has looked supreme lately and so will widely be expected to win.]

Schedule

2025 BNP Paribas Open (03-12)

Stadium 1

Round 4 - 3/12 - 2:00 PM EDT
Belinda Bencic
3Coco Gauff

Round 4 - 3/12 - 3:30 PM EDT
5Madison Keys
19Donna Vekic

Round 4 - 3/12 - 5:00 PM EDT
3Taylor Fritz
13Jack Draper

Round 4 - 3/12 - 9:00 PM EDT
2Carlos Alcaraz
14Grigor Dimitrov

Stadium 2

Round 4 - 3/12 - 2:00 PM EDT
11Ben Shelton
32Brandon Nakashima

Round 4 - 3/12 - 3:30 PM EDT
9Alex De Minaur
25Francisco Cerundolo

Round 4 - 3/12 - 6:00 PM EDT
Sonay Kartal
1Aryna Sabalenka

Round 4 - 3/12 - 7:30 PM EDT
6Jasmine Paolini
24Liudmila Samsonova

Quarterfinal - 3/12 - 9:00 PM EDT
Jiri Lehecka-Alejandro Tabilo
Sebastian Korda-Jordan Thompson

Stadium 3

Quarterfinal - 3/12 - 5:00 PM EDT
Matteo Berrettini-Lorenzo Sonego
1Marcelo Arevalo-1Mate Pavic

Quarterfinal - 3/12 - 6:30 PM EDT
7Maximo Gonzalez-7Andres Molteni
Christian Harrison-Evan King

Stadium 4

Quarterfinal - 3/12 - 6:30 PM EDT
Yuki Bhambri-Andre Goransson
Fernando Romboli-John-Patrick Smith

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