World’s Top Tennis Players at the BNP Paribas Open

For the first time in March 2009, BNP Paribas will be the title sponsor of the BNP Paribas Open, known as the Grand Slam of the West in Indian Wells, California.

Australian Open quarterfinalist and former World No. 4 ranked star Jelena Dokic headlines the wildcard entries granted today by the BNP Paribas Open, to be held March 9-22 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, it was announced today by tournament director Steve Simon.

Taylor Dent, a former top 30 ranked star who also has recovered from a career-threatening injury, leads a group of American men that received wildcards into the main draw. He recently returned to the ATP World Tour after recovering from back surgery and won his first match in almost two years at Brisbane in January.

John Isner, one of the tallest men on tour at 6’9”, has steadily improved since his All-American career at the University of Georgia and reached the quarterfinals at Auckland earlier this year.

Wayne Odesnik and Ryan Sweeting both have continued to improve their world ranking and have USTA Challenger victories at Carson and Dallas respectively.

In addition to the Americans, Kevin Anderson of South Africa, who won the first tournament of his career last year in Las Vegas, was also granted a wildcard.

On the women’s side, three American women, Vania King, Alexa Glatch and Melanie Oudin, will join Dokic in the field.

In addition to the three Americans, a quartet of international stars also accepted wildcards today including former top 20 ranked Indian star and 2009 Australian Open doubles champion Sania Mirza, 2007 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Michaella Krajicek, 2007 Wimbledon Junior champion Urszula Radwanska, and rising junior star Alja Tomljanovic.

Wildcards for the men’s qualifying draw were awarded to Alex Domijan and Lester Cook. Wild cards for the women’s qualifying draw were awarded to Petra Martic, Coco Vandeweghe, Julia Boserup, Asia Muhammad and Angela Haynes. Two other qualifying draw wildcards (one man, one woman) will be given to the winners of the pre-qualifying round of the BNP Paribas Open Challenge tournament, to be held March 7-8 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

List for the 2009 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells will be complete by end of qualifying rounds on Tuesday, March 11 for the WTA players and Wednesday, March 12 for the ATP players. Entry list is subject to change.