Past Indian Wells Champions: Federer, Djokovic & Nadal domination

The Indian Wells event for both men’s and women’s tennis starts this week.

Read our 2023 ATP and WTA in-depth previews and tips about who we think will win this year’s events, but who has been successful in the desert in the past?

Former ATP Indian Wells Champions

No-one has defended this title since Novak Djokovic in 2016 and every player since then has been someone different.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are tied at five for the highest number of ATP Indian Wells titles. Rafael Nadal has won the title three times, and no-one other than those three won the title between 2011-2017. Indeed, only Ivan Ljubicic broke the triopoly in 2010, as no-one else won it between 2004-2017 other than the Croatian.

Going back to the 1990s, this trophy remainded Stateside every year between 1991-1997 as Michael Chang, Pete Sampras, and Jim Courier shared it around between themselves.

WTA Indian Wells Champions

The women only began playing at Indian Wells in 1989, and it only became a top tier WTA tournament in 1996.

The title has really been shared around though. No player has ever won it more than twice and there hasn’t been a successful defence of the title since Martina Navratilova in 1991. Can Iga Swiatek change this record?