Five aspiring to a first 1000 masters on a hard track | ATP Tour

Indian Wells

Five candidates for a first 1000 masters on a hard track

Indian Wells offers the first opportunity of the year

March 06, 2025

Conquering an ATP Masters 1000 title is one of the most emblematic objectives of ATP Tour. The nine golden quotes of the calendar are an open door to the history of sport, with great champions coloring paintings of honor in the locker room. Marked with special interest in the road map, seven of those appointments (Indian Wells, Miami, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai, Paris) is fought on a hard surface, a predominant platform in the circuit and whose control is fundamental to reach the top of the PIF ATP rankings.

Atptour.com lists five players who aspire to complete this milestone in the 2025 season.

Stefanos tsitsipas
The experience accompanies the blows of the Greek to tear down one of the pending barriers in his career. Stefanos is the most laureate player in the golden category of the ATP Tour without a crown of this hard surface caliber. Three times champion about Montecarlo’s clay, the Hellenic arrives prepared in 2025 to unleash his talent in the predominant calendar platform. And your memories in this type of court can promote it to complete the objective. There are multiple milestones signed by the Athens player, champion of the Nitto ATP Finals, runner -up of Grand Slam (Australia Open) and multiple finalist in ATP Masters 1000 events (Canada, Cincinnati). After lifting in Dubai the biggest trophy of his regular season career, Tsitsipas will walk in the Indian Wells desert with a special authority. Did it be time to climb to a new level?

Andrey Rublev
Few blows in the costumes generate a similar authority to Rublev’s right, increasingly settled in the coveted events of the circuit. Andrey has managed to lift an ATP Masters 1000 crown in the last two seasons, leaving his stamp on the whipped land of Montecarlo and Madrid as a brilliant champion. With a fully overturned game and a dizzying ball rhythm, its candidacy has been evident in the large hard surface tournaments. Fernando Vicente’s pupil was at a point to conquer the Rolex Shanghai Masters in 2023, a thorn that will be able to get rid of this season. His impetus also allowed him to compete for the Cup in Canada and Cincinnati, the latter just a few months ago, demonstrating a total capacity to join the list of champions.

Casper Ruud
At the beginning of the 2024 season, the Norwegian publicly shared his ambition to achieve greater caliber trophies. Casper fulfilled his word raising the title in the ATP 500 in Barcelona, ​​the greatest conquest of his entire career. For a player who has demonstrated an immense talent for clay – 11 of his 12 thrones were forged on the surface – a step forward on a hard track looks like a step to face with ambition. His milestones are already notable in this type of court, with final matches in the ATP Masters 1000 of Miami, the US Open and the Nitto ATP Finals, the three greatest categories of the calendar, as a competitive guarantee. At 26, after having touched the No. 2 of the PIF ATP Rankings based on regularity away from the whipped earth, the Scandinavian lands in 2025 as one of the great candidates to enter the club.

Alex de Miñaur
The management of ATP Masters 1000 events can be the great growth door for the Australian. After entering the Top 10 in the 2024 season, Miñaur has become one of the fixed names in the high zone of the locker room. And its performance in the golden category of ATP Tour has room to grow at the same rhythm. Aussie managed to climb until the final of Canada in the 2023 season, a result that continues to reflect the best performance of his career in this type of tournaments. Although he has never overcome the quarterfinals at events in the category, his current weight in the circuit invites us to think about a 2025 hatching season. In 2024 he signed an unprecedented milestone in his career by revalidating an ATP 500 crown, showing his ability to withstand pressure on his shoulders. Time to raise the personal bar?

Happy Auger-aliassime
If something has characterized the trajectory of the Canadian, patience has been to know how to wait for its moment. After losing the first eight ATP Tour finals of his career, Auger-Aliassime has been crossing great objectives in his list of pending tasks. In 2024, competing in an ATP Masters 1000 ending was one of the most prominent milestones he added to his experience. Although he was one step away from the Cup in the Mutua Madrid Open, he proved to be able to fight for everything in the great stages. Felix lands at Indian Wells in authentic splendor, as a player with more games won this season. All the trophies that rest in their showcase were achieved on a hard surface and, for a player who has signed Grand Slam semifinals in this type of court, an ATP Masters 1000 feat seems to enter its shooting range. A formidable ambition for a talent cheered since its junior time.