Djokovic has played only one tournament so far this year and that was the Australian Open at Melbourne Park where he reached the final before losing in four sets against Carlos Alcaraz.
He also entered the Adelaide International ahead of the hard-court Grand Slam, but withdrew as he felt he was not “physicallly ready” to compete while he also pulled out of this week’s Qatar Open due to “strong fatigue”.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner doesn’t have any tournament scheduled for the final week of February, but he will be in action at the start of March with the Sunshine Double kicking off at Indian Wells.
In an Instagram post, organisers announced: “A legend returns. 20 years after his debut here, Novak Djokovic is coming back to Tennis Paradise!”
The Indian Wells Open was one of five ATP Masters tournaments on Djokovic’s calendar in 2025.
The former world No 1 is a five-time Grand Slam winner at the California hard-court event, but he has struggled the past two years as he lost in the second round against Botic van de Zandschulp in 2025 while the previous year he was beaten in the third round by Luca Nardi.
Before that, he missed three consecutive Indian Wells events as he opted not to compete for various reasons, while the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
You have to go back to 2016 for the last time Djokovic reached the latter stages of the ATP 1000 event as he won the last of his five titles that year, beating Milos Raonic in the final. The Serbian won his other titles in 2015, 2014, 2011 and 2008.
A top field is expected at Indian Wells with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner set to be the top seeds with Djokovic likely to get the third seed spot ahead of Alexander Zverev, Lorenzo Mussetti, Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton and Alexander Bublik.
Although Djokovic is yet to confirm his schedule for the rest of the year, he is expected to compete at the Miami Open – a tournament he has won six times – as he made his return to the ATP 1000 tournament last year following a five-year absence.
After that the focus will switch to the clay-court season with the first event likely to be the Monte Carlo Masters.
