To borrow a phrase: What did we just witness in Indian Wells?
Was it a one-off? A revolution? An expansion of tennis’s recent youth movement? Some combination of all those things?
Only time will tell, of course, but for now the convincing title runs that Mirra Andreeva and Jack Draper made in the desert feel like a pair of new beginnings for the ATP and WTA. That may be because they resemble another pair of new beginnings from a few years ago.
In the spring of 2022, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek tore through the Sunshine Double, and made it clear they were both heading for No. 1 on their respective tours. In the three years since, they’ve won nine major titles.
I’m not saying Andreeva and Draper are going to rise that far, that fast. But it’s clear, in the Brit’s case, that his stock just shot a lot higher. It’s even clearer, in the Russian’s case, that her journey toward Grand Slam success just kicked into overdrive, and went from a distant possibility to an immediate one.