djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas accepted a wildcard to team up in men’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the draw revealed Thursday (ET). The Serbian and the Greek draw defending champions Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic in a blockbuster opening match. The partnership marks Djokovic’s first doubles appearance at Indian Wells since 2019 and follows his most recent doubles outing at Doha 2025 with Fernando Verdasco.
Djokovic and Tsitsipas: immediate test against defending champions
The wildcard pairing opens directly against Arevalo and Pavic, the reigning champions, creating one of the draw’s highest-profile first-round tests. Djokovic — who reached the doubles semifinals at Indian Wells in 2019 alongside Fabio Fognini — returns to the venue hoping for a deep run; if he wins the title he would claim a second doubles trophy, a figure placed in the context as 99 fewer than his singles haul. The two players have a lengthy singles history, including a notable 2021 French Open final in which Djokovic came back from two sets down to beat Tsitsipas, and now convert that rivalry into a doubles alliance on hard courts in Tennis Paradise.
Top singles stars, wildcards and standout doubles pairings
Beyond the Djokovic-Tsitsipas wildcard, the draw features several headline singles names accepted into doubles: Jannik Sinner and Reilly Opelka received a wildcard and will meet top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the first round, while Daniil Medvedev teams with Learner Tien to face cousins Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot. Medvedev is listed as age 30 and Tien as 20; Vacherot, a qualifier ranked outside the top 200, beat Rinderknech to win an unexpected Shanghai Masters final in October. Sebastian Korda, who reached last year’s final with Jordan Thompson, pairs this year with Felix Auger-Aliassime and is slated to meet alternates Alexander Zverev and Marcelo Melo; Zverev and Melo claimed a doubles crown in Acapulco recently. Tsitsipas, at age 27, is available to concentrate on doubles after a singles loss to Denis Shapovalov, freeing his schedule to pursue partnership success in the draw.
What comes next and why this matters
The opening rounds will determine whether headline pairs can translate singles firepower into doubles cohesion; marquee matches begin immediately following the draw published Thursday (ET). A run by the Djokovic-Tsitsipas pairing would carry narrative weight—linking historical singles rivalries to a potential doubles milestone at Indian Wells—and could make Djokovic a rare Big Three member to lift the doubles trophy at this event, joining Rafael Nadal’s doubles success while Roger Federer reached finals in the past. Watch for matchups that pit established doubles specialists against newly formed teams of top singles stars, and for the impact on scheduling and player focus as the tournament progresses.
As the tournament moves from first rounds into later stages, attention will sharpen on whether djokovic and Tsitsipas can upset the defending champions and how other singles standouts adapt to the doubles format; the next wave of matches will clarify which wildcards translate into real title threats.
