Barbora Krejcikova‘s nightmare start to the 2025 season has continued after she withdrew from the 2025 Indian Wells Open with an ongoing injury.
2024 was one of the most memorable years of Krejcikova’s career. She unexpectedly won the Wimbledon singles title after an incredible run that included a semifinal victory against the 2022 champion, Elena Rybakina.
Krejcikova was a rank outsider for the title after missing a couple of months with an injury at the start of the year before struggling for form. The Czech suddenly found form to reign supreme in London.
That achievement was the primary reason she qualified for the 2024 WTA Finals. Krejcikova reached the semifinals of the season-ending tournament, but she lost to Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng at that stage.
Unfortunately, Krejcikova has not played a match since. She suffered a back injury during the closing stages of the 2024 season and planned to recover from the problem during the off-season.
However, the problem turned out to be more severe than Krejcikova expected. The 29-year-old had pulled out of the 2025 Australian Open and both WTA 1000 tournaments before it was confirmed she would also miss the Indian Wells Open.
The tournament revealed the disappointing news on Tuesday. The reason given was an injury, undoubtedly referring to the back injury she has been battling with for a few months now.
It is the first high-profile withdrawal from the tournament on the women’s side. However, there was also confusion around the participation of the seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams.
The Indian Wells Open originally announced that four players, including Williams, had been given wild cards. Petra Kvitova, Joao Fonseca, and Learner Tien were also listed.
A few days later, at an event in the Netherlands, Williams revealed that the wild card was untrue and that she had discovered it at the same time as fans, creating an embarrassing situation for the Indian Wells organizers.
Tournament director Tommy Haas confirmed the next day that Williams had not accepted the wild card and would not be playing at the event but did not explain how such a bizarre mistake occurred.
On the men’s side, Jannik Sinner withdrew from the Indian Wells entry list after he accepted a suspension until May 4th in exchange for ending his doping case with the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Sinner’s situation has caused much controversy. Novak Djokovic told the media that several players in the locker room felt he was treated more favorably than several other players who could not settle their cases.
By contrast, Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni defended Sinner. He does not think the Italian deserved a suspension and argues that the anti-doping bodies should go after those who deliberately dope, not accidentally contaminated players like Sinner.
Although the ATP world No. 1’s absence will be a shame, there are several other excellent players on the men’s and women’s sides to compensate for it, including Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, and Aryna Sabalenka.
