4 key takeaways from Mirra Andreeva & Jack Draper's incredible Indian Wells 2025 title wins

This year's edition of the Indian Wells Masters saw two new champions crowned as Jack Draper and Mirra Andreeva won the event. They did so by beating the reigning champions along the way, as Draper ousted Carlos Alcaraz and Andreeva beat Iga Swiatek.

So let’s take a look at some of the takeaways from both of those stellar title runs.

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1. Mirra Andreeva will be legendary

BNP Paribas Open - Final Day - Source: Getty

We have to take a moment and simply acknowledge what Mirra Andreeva has been doing recently. It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say that she has been the best player in the world in the past month. She won two WTA 1000 events back-to-back, beating some stellar opposition along the way. She bested Swiatek twice in that span, bested Rybakina, and bested Sabalenka as well.

It’s not just a historic run in the sense that we’re going to remember this in 10 years. It’s a run that is ascending in nature because she is ascending to superstardom. She’s already in the Top 10 and will continue to rise as the season continues.

She is number three in the race, which proves that mathematically she’s been no less than the third-best so far this year, but in the last month, she has certainly been the best player in the world, and she will be legendary when all is said and done.

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2. Tennis has never had more parity

This one might make you stop in your tracks for a moment and think, but we do believe that this is true. Think about the landscape of both men’s and women’s tennis. Women’s tennis has notoriously always had more parity simply because the sport is more volatile overall. At any time, we can have some player come out and play ridiculously well to win the trophy. It wasn’t the case on the men’s side, at least not comparatively, but we’re slowly getting there.

Neither Draper nor Andreeva were favored to win the event. Andreeva had been one of the favorites simply due to how well she played recently, but Draper wasn’t anywhere close to being a favorite. But they both played amazingly well to win the trophy.

It’s a really nice reminder that tennis as a sport is rather fascinating. Sometimes stuff like this just happens—on any given day, any player can beat any player, and while this week wasn’t the first time that was proven true, it was a good reminder.

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3. Jack Draper is coming into his own

Draper has to be acknowledged as well because we’re talking about a player who was always known as a pristine talent. Ever since he went on a tear on the challenger tour a few years ago, people knew that he was a good tennis player. Injuries and physical problems have prevented him from truly ascending properly, but he’s getting there slowly.

First of all, there was the US Open run last year where he made it deep for the first time at the Grand Slam. That wasn’t just important because it was his maiden run in such a setting but also because it proved that his body can hold up when push comes to shove. Now, this run is firmly proof that Draper is indeed a great tennis player and slowly coming into his own.

The British player smashed everybody along the way—it’s as simple as that. Even Alcaraz didn’t really look all that great against him. The final was the shortest in basically twenty years, so he’s here. Prepare yourself for more and more Jack Draper in the coming months because he has arrived, and he is not going anywhere.

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4. Dominating in tennis is incredibly hard

A more overarching takeaway, in light of Andreeva’s and Draper’s success at Indian Wells, is just how hard it truly is to dominate this sport. So take the examples of Swiatek or Sabalenka, who have dominated the sport at certain stretches.

They aren’t anymore, not because they’re not good enough, but because it takes an incredibly high amount of consistency that is almost humanly not possible, no matter how hard you try, which makes it even more insane what the likes of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have been able to do. Or Serena Williams, for that matter.

Even on the men’s side, you have Carlos Alcaraz, who has dominated at Indian Wells in the past. He looked as if he couldn’t lose, but now he lost, and it’s again a reminder and proof that dominating tennis as an individual player is incredibly hard.

Even some of the best players in the world, and those that will be Hall of Famers in the future, aren’t able to do it easily, so what does that truly say about the legendary feat it is to do it for 10+ years? Let that sink in.