Australia's polarising tennis superstar Nick Kyrgios could be set to face 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic in the first masters 1000 event of the season.
Currently ranked outside of the world's top 1000, Kyrgios has been granted direct entry into the Indian Wells main draw by way of his protected ranking.
Protected rankings allow players to return to major tournaments following a significant absence from tour, most commonly seen after a long-term injury layoff.
Serving over a full year on the sidelines with knee, wrist, foot and abdominal injuries, the former Wimbledon finalist is eligible to use his protected ranking (21) in 12 tournaments of his choosing over a 12-month period.
The most recent of these uses came at January's Australian Open, where the Canberra native fell short against Great Britain's Jacob Fearnley 7-6 6-3 7-6 in the first round.
Kyrgios has not been seen since his home slam, however will suit up for the tour's 'fifth slam' in California, a tournament he's reached the quarterfinal stage of on two occasions - first in 2017 (withdrew against Federer with injury) and more recently in 2022 (lost to Nadal).
The 29-year-old has the chance to set up a mouth-watering clash with Djokovic in the second round, a matchup not seen since the hotly contested Wimbledon final in 2022. Despite losing this match, Kyrgios holds the edge over the Serb in the overall head-to-head 2-1 and is yet to lose a set against the former world number one in their two hardcourt encounters. The most recent of Kyrgios' victories over Djokovic interestingly came back at Indian Wells in 2017 (6-4 7-6).
In order to ensure the blockbuster encounter Kyrgios will first have to survive a first-ever meeting against world number 85 Botic Van de Zandschulp in round one. The Dutch number two has adopted the moniker of 'The Giant Killer' in recent times, having famously beaten world number three Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open before sending Rafael Nadal into retirement at the Davis Cup two months later.
With world number one Jannik Sinner serving his suspension two-time defending Indian Wells champion Carlos Alcaraz has labelled this year's Indian Wells event as one of the more competitive tournaments in recent times.
"Jannik's not playing, but there are a lot of the best players in the world playing here," Alcaraz told reporters during his media day press conference. "I think the draw is really open and a lot of players are playing great tennis".
The absence of Sinner has so far been met with a lacklustre response from the chasing pack, with Alexander Zverev (world number 2), Carlos Alcaraz (world number 3), Taylor Fritz (world number 4), Caspar Ruud (world number 5), Daniil Medvedev (world number 6) and Novak Djokovic (world number 7) all struggling for form since the Australian Open.
Should Alcaraz prevail, the Spaniard would join Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as just the third man in history to win the tournament on three consecutive occasions.
The tournament begins tomorrow morning at 6am AEST.
