"The tournament hates Elena Rybakina so much" - Fans slam 'ridiculous' Indian Wells scheduling after former champ's repeated Center Court snub

Elena Rybakina, 2023 BNP Paribas Open champion, is yet to feature on the Center Court of the event at Indian Wells in 2025. In a surprising move for many fans, the blockbuster clash between the Kazakh and Mirra Andreeva has also been scheduled for Stadium 2 and not the Center Court.

Rybakina is in fine form in the USA with two straight-set wins to help her through to the fourth round. She played both her matches on Court 2 and will take on 17-year-old Andreeva on Tuesday, March 11.

In the schedule released for the day, fans noted that the Kazakh's Center Court snub continued as she was set to play on Court 2 again.

"She‘s the Indian Wells 2023 champion but still hasn‘t played a single match on centre court. like why are giron & fils on centre court???? the tournament hates her so much ngl," one fan wrote.

One fan claimed that the WTA has not been treating her kindly and linked it to the Stefano Vukov controversy, writing:

"@WTA & their conies, tour organisers hv been disrespecting and abusing Elena Rybakina her whole career that's why she doesn't trust them with the Vukov situation who is also abusive. @BNPPARIBASOPEN has been putting every mediocre player at CC but not the 2023 champion Rybakina."

"Elena Rybakina must be the first IW Champion in history to not play a match on Centre Court up to and including Round 4," another fan wrote.

Some fans were surprised by the choices made by the Indian Wells event organizers for the Center Court matches.

"It's absolutely weird the fact Rybakina is the very last option to play in the center court, it's tough to find a reasonable motivation, I understand completely Iga and Sabalenka get preference, or even Gauff in the US, but that's not the case so weren't others," one fan wrote.

"Raducanu who flopped in R1 still has more matches on center court than Elena Rybakina, your former champ and a top 10 player," another fan wrote.

"It's ridiculous that Giron-Fils and Zheng-Kostyuk will be on centre court, but Rybakina-Andreeva won't be on centre court," yet another fan wrote.

On Tuesday, the fourth round matches begin for both the WTA and the ATP with some top stars taking the courts.

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Indian Wells 2025 schedule for March 11 ft. Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek, Tommy Paul & others

Elena Rybakina at the BNP Paribas Open - Source: Getty

Second seed Iga Swiatek will kick off the morning session on the Center Court at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Tuesday, March 11. The Pole will take on 15th seed Karolina Muchova in an exciting clash.

They will be followed by some exhilarating ATP clashes. 12th seed Holger Rune will take on eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas followed by the USA's Marcos Giron taking on 20th seed Arthur Fils.

The night session begins with 10th seed Tommy Paul taking on fifth seed Daniil Medvedev and the final match of the day on Center Court will feature eighth seed Qinwen Zheng and 18th seed Marta Kostyuk.

Meanwhile, a solid clash between two Top 10 players, seventh seed Elena Rybakina and ninth seed Mirra Andreeva will take place during the night session on Court 2. They faced off less than 20 days ago when Andreeva got the better of the Kazakh in Dubai in the semifinals and eventually won the title.

Also, Court 2 features a strong clash between 23rd seed Elina Svitolina and fourth seed Jessica Pegula in the morning session.