What you need to know about the Indian Wells final

The BNP Paribas Open final will see World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka take on No. 11 Mirra Andreeva in the third WTA 1000 event of the Hologic WTA Tour season.

Indian Wells: Draws | Scores | Order of play

After avenging her Australian Open loss to No. 5 Madison Keys with the loss of just one game, can Sabalenka stop the red-hot teenager who has won her last 11 WTA 1000 matches?

Here’s what you need to know about Sunday’s big showdown.

When is the women’s singles final?

The women’s singles final will be played on Sunday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m. at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

The doubles final between Asia Muhammad/Demi Schuurs and Tereza Mihalikova/Olivia Nicholls will be played on Saturday, March 15 at 11:00 a.m.

California is on Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -7).

What are the points and prize money at stake?

By making the Indian Wells final, both Sabalenka and Andreeva have assured themselves 650 PIF WTA Ranking points and $599,625 in prize money.

Saturday’s champion will take home a total of 1,000 points and $1,127,500.

Having made her Top 10 debut after winning her first WTA 1000 title three weeks ago at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Andreeva is now set to return to the Top 10 on Monday.

How did Sabalenka and Andreeva get here?

Sabalenka came into Indian Wells having lost three of her last four matches. The top seed responded by rolling through her draw without losing a set. Along the way, she has defeated McCartney Kessler, Lucia Bronzetti, Sonay Kartal, 24th seed Liudmila Samsonova, and No. 5 Madison Keys. Her win over the reigning Australian Open champion in the semifinals was a 6-0, 6-1 rout in just 51 minutes.

Andreeva won her first WTA 1000 title the week before Indian Wells in Dubai. The No. 9 seed has extended her win streak to 11 matches and is now tied with Iga Swiatek and Keys for the most wins this season (18). She is the youngest player to notch 11 consecutive wins at the WTA 1000 level and the youngest woman to reach the Indian Wells final since Kim Clijsters in 2001. She is the fifth player to reach the final in Indian Wells before turning 18 years old, joining Monica Seles (1991), Martina Hingis (1998), Serena Williams (1999), and Clijsters (2001).

and Kim Clijsters (2001).

In Indian Wells, she has defeated Varvara Gracheva, 22nd seed Clara Tauson, 7th seed Elena Rybakina, 23rd seed Elina Svitolina, and No. 2 and defending champion Swiatek.  Her 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-3 win over Swiatek was her fifth Top 10 win of the year.

How do they stack up?

Sabalenka has a heavy edge in the head-to-head, having won four of their five previous meetings. This will be their third meeting of the year, with Sabalenka routing the teenager in Brisbane (6-3, 6-2) and the Australian Open (6-1, 6-2).

Andreeva’s sole win came on clay at Roland Garros last year, where she came from a set down to win 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 to make her first Grand Slam semifinal.

What milestones are at stake on Sunday?

Sabalenka is playing her third final of the season and bidding to win her second title of the year and 19th overall. She opened her season with a title run at the Brisbane International and finished runner-up to Keys at the Australian Open. This is her second Indian Wells final, after finishing runner-up to Elena Rybakina in 2023. Victory on Sunday would deliver her an eighth WTA 1000 title and first since winning Wuhan last fall.

Andreeva is bidding to win her third career title and second of the season. Last month in Dubai, the 17-year-old became the youngest WTA 1000 champion since the format was introduced in 2009. Now, she is one win away from becoming the first teenager to win Indian Wells since Bianca Andreescu in 2019 and the third-youngest in tournament history after Hingis in 1998 and Serena Williams in 1999.

A win on Sunday would make Andreeva the third player in the last 40 years to beat World No. 1 and No. 2 at a tournament before turning 18 after Stefanie Graf at 1987 Key Biscayne (Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert) and Serena Williams at 1999 US Open 1999 (Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis). She would be the youngest player to beat World No. 1 in a completed match since Tamira Paszek defeated Ana Ivanovic at 2008 Montreal, and the youngest to do so in a final since Maria Sharapova beat Lindsay Davenport at 2005 Tokyo.

What are they saying?

Andieva: “Yeah, the matches that we played this year didn’t really go my way. I can say she almost killed me, especially in Melbourne. I’m gonna try to take a revenge, because I still have nothing to lose, and I feel like the match is going to be probably entertaining. There is going to be a lot of winners, a lot of great points.”

Sabalenka: “I passed this stage of thinking about the age of my opponent. I still feel like I’m 18. It’s just so awkward for me to think that I’m 26 and 27 this year, and she’s 17 and is, like, just two years older than my sister. I look at my sister as, like, a kid. You know, I remember her being this little baby. So I look at Mirra and think, oh, my God, I’m so old. Yeah, that’s just crazy.”

Andieva: “I know that Monica Seles and Martina Hingis, they won a lot of tournaments and a lot of titles while they were still teenagers. Of course I know that they have been playing great, and I try to be at the same level, but tennis has changed a lot, and now I cannot imagine me winning eight Slams at 17 years old. It’s impossible. I try to not really think about it, because after, I can start to overthink, I can start to compare myself, and then I don’t think that it’s going to lead me to any good. I know what they have done. Okay, good for them. But I try not to think about them and try to focus on what to do with my career.”