Indian Wells Preview: Davenport, Mauresmo, Sharapova Head Field

Posted on March 8, 2005

World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport attempts a third career title this week at the WTA stop in Indian Wells, following up on wins in 1997 and 2000, and will benefit from the absence of defending champion and former No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne who continues to rehabilitate a knee injury.

Henin-Hardenne defeated Davenport 6-1, 6-4 in the 2004 final.

Davenport is joined among the Top 8 seeds by Amelie Mauresmo, a slew of Russians in Maria "Grunt-o-meter" Sharapova, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Elena Bovina, and Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy.

Thirty-two players are seeded at Indian Wells, with all receiving first-round byes.

Potential second-round match-ups of interest are (1) Davenport vs. outspoken Bulgarian wildcard teen Sesil "The Mouth" Karatantcheva of Bulgaria, (11) Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem vs. Czech comer Nicole Vaidisova, (31) Lisa Raymond vs. Greece's Eleni Daniilidou, and (16) Shinobu Asagoe vs. the winner of former No. 1 Kim Clijsters and Aussie Nicole Pratt.

Potential fourth-round meetings of interest are (3) Sharapova vs. (13) Daniela Hantuchova, (4) Dementieva vs. (14) Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin, and (2) Mauresmo vs. the unseeded Clijsters. If the seeding hold, you could witness some blockbuster semifinals in (1) Davenport vs. (3) Sharapova, and (2) Mauresmo vs. whoever comes out of the (4) Dementieva vs. (5) Kuznetsova quarterfinal.

Main draw wildcards went to Karatantcheva, Czech Daja Bedanova, the Ukraine's Viktoria Kutuzova, Russian Alisa Kleybanova, and Americans Alexa Glatch, Jessica "Captain" Kirkland, Angela Haynes, and Jamea "Action" Jackson.

Returning champs on the women's side are Clijsters (2003), Hantuchova (2002) and Davenport (2000,'97).

The men's draw will be made at 4 p.m. EST today, with women's main draw play beginning Wednesday and the men beginning on Friday.