Venus Williams to play mixed doubles in Indian Wells, who else is in the field?

The mixed doubles field isnow set for the BNP Paribas Open, a new mainstay in the tournament’s second week.

Tournament organizers bolstered the prize pool from $250,000 to $1 million this year in hopes of perhaps attracting bigger name talent (maybe singles players eliminated early from the tournament) to join on board and play a little more competitive tennis before heading to Miami.

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The field is a combination of players that fit that description, as well as traditional mixed-doubles team. Let’s take a look.

The 16-team tournament begins Tuesday and ends wit the championship on Satuday after the men’s doubles final.

Meet the BNP Paribas Open mixed-doubles field in Indian Wells

Legendary: The biggest name that will be competing in the 16-team, 32-player field is the tennis icon herself, Venus Williams. Williams, who participated in the singles competition but lost her first match, will team with American Christian Harrison. Their first match will be Wednesday.

Local talent: The desert’s own Desirae Krawczyk, a four-time mixed-doubles grand slam champion, will pair up with Neil Skupski, with whom she won two of those slams. Krawczyk is from Rancho Mirage and attended Palm Desert High School. She and Skupski won the 2021 and 2022 Wimbledon mixed titles.

Defending champions: The Italian pair of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori are in the field as the No. 4 seed, after winning the BNP Paribas Open title in 2025. The other three seeded duos are mixed-doubles specialists: 1-Gabriela Dabrowski and Lloyd Glasspool, 2-Aleksandra Krunic and Mate Pavic and 3-Luisa Stefani and Marcelo Arevalo.

Double duty: Only one of the 32 players is still alive in the singles tournament, and that is Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. She is teaming with Flavio Cobolli.

Seeded in singles: Some seeded singles players who have been eliminated and are participating in mixed doubles include Karen Khachanov (16) with Anna Danilina; Andrey Rublev (17) with Nicole Melichar-Martinez; Jelena Ostapenko (26) with Evan King; Leylah Fernandez (27) with John Peers; and Maria Sakkari (32) with Stefanos Tsitsipas.

And the rest: The four remaining teams that don’t fit any of these categories are Erin Routliffe-Tim Puetz; Ellen Perez-Kevin Krawietz; Demi Schuurs-Julian Cash and Kristina Mladenovic-Manuel Guinard.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Venus Williams among players in the BNP Paribas Open mixed-doubles field