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<\/p>\nMartina Navratilova has made her pick for which WTA star will win the 2026 Indian Wells Open.<\/p>\n
The qualifiers are already in progress, with the main draw action on both tours kicking off on 4 March.<\/p>\n
And just before it starts, Navratilova has put forward her pick for the upcoming WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n
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Martina Navratilova backs Aryna Sabalenka to take Indian Wells title<\/p>\n
Photo by Hannah Peters\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Speaking to the WTA website, the 18-time Gland Slam winner said: \u201cYou still have to go with [Aryna] Sabalenka because she\u2019s got the weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, the way everything is going, if [Elena] Rybakina is fully healthy, they are the top two players, clear frontrunners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey might come close to the level of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz if they keep going this way unless Coco [Gauff] figures things out and [Iga] Swiatek gets her mojo back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she\u2019ll be out for revenge. Knowing her, Sabalenka is hoping she\u2019s going to play Rybakina at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sabalenka goes into Indian Wells and the Miami Open with an 11-1 record for the year so far.<\/p>\n
She picked up a title at the Brisbane International after beating Marta Kostyuk in straight sets, just before Melbourne Park kicked off.<\/p>\n
Rybakina has also started 2026 well. She is currently at 12-3 for the season, which includes her win over the Belarusian star in the Australian Open final.<\/p>\n
Martina Navratilova concerned over Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s record in Grand Slam finals<\/p>\n
Navratilova was also asked about how she thinks Sabalenka might perform throughout the Sunshine Swing, given her strong 11-1 start to the season.<\/p>\n
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She stated: \u201cShe played so well getting to the AO final, winning tough matches. Kept it together, but she was not nearly near her best.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is that she\u2019s getting to Grand Slam finals \u2013 five of the past six. The bad news is that she\u2019s lost three of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a record that has raised some eyebrows. Sabalenka has now reached eight Grand Slam finals and has split them evenly, with four wins and four losses.<\/p>\n
By comparison, Rybakina and Gauff both hold 2-1 records in major finals, while Swiatek remains unbeaten in her six appearances.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Indian Wells field includes all four players, with Mirra Andreeva returning as defending champion after her win over the Belarusian star last year.<\/p>\n
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On the ATP side, Jack Draper returns as defending champion after his victory over Holger Rune last year.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martina Navratilova has made her pick for which WTA star will win the 2026 Indian Wells Open. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[652,2073,85372,149588,432,17515,99,428,654],"class_list":["post-501547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-grand-slam-finals","tag-indian-wells","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-martina-navratilova","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}