The 2021 Indian Wells Open (also known as the BNP Paribas Open for sponsorship reasons) was a professional men's and women's tennis tournament played in Indian Wells, California. After the event was cancelled the preceding year amid the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was initially scheduled to take place on March 10–21, 2021, but was postponed to October 6–17, 2021 to accommodate logistics disruptions owing to the pandemic.
It was the 47th edition of the men's event and 32nd of the women's event, and was classified as an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event on the 2021 ATP Tour and a WTA 1000 event on the 2021 WTA Tour. Both the men's and the women's qualifying and main draw events took place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from October 4 through October 17, 2021 on outdoor hard courts.
Dominic Thiem was the defending men's singles champion from when the tournament was last held in 2019. However, after Thiem ended his season early due to an ongoing wrist injury, he withdrew from the tournament. Cameron Norrie won the men's singles title to become the first British man to win the Indian Wells Masters and earn his first ATP Masters 1000 title. Bianca Andreescu was the defending women's singles champion from 2019, but she lost in the third round to Anett Kontaveit. Paula Badosa won the women's singles title to become the first Spanish woman to win the Indian Wells Masters and earn her first WTA 1000 title.
The teams of Nikola Mektić and Horacio Zeballos and Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka were the defending champions in the men's and women's doubles draws, respectively. Mektić and Zeballos chose not to participate together. Mektić played alongside partner Mate Pavić as the top seeds, but the pair lost in the quarterfinals. Zeballos played alongside partner Marcel Granollers, but were eliminated in the first round. Sabalenka chose not to defend her title and Mertens entered alongside partner Hsieh Su-wei. Mertens successfully defended her title with Hsieh, making it Mertens' second and Hsieh's third Indian Wells title, respectively.
Champions
Men's singles
Cameron Norrie def. Nikoloz Basilashvili, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1
Women's singles
Paula Badosa def. Victoria Azarenka, 7–6(7–5), 2–6, 7–6(7–2)
This was Badosa's second WTA Tour singles title, and first at the WTA 1000 level.
Men's doubles
John Peers / Filip Polášek def. Aslan Karatsev / Andrey Rublev, 6–3, 7–6(7–5)
Women's doubles
Hsieh Su-wei / Elise Mertens def. Veronika Kudermetova / Elena Rybakina, 7–6(7–1), 6–3
Points and prize money
Point distribution
Prize money
ATP singles main-draw entrants
Seeds
The following are the seeded players. Seedings are based on ATP rankings as of October 4, 2021. Rank and points before are as of October 4, 2021.
As a result of pandemic-related adjustments to the ranking system, players are defending their points from the 2019 tournament (which had already been reduced by 50%), as well as from tournaments held during the weeks of 7 and 14 October 2019 (Shanghai, Stockholm, Antwerp and/or Moscow) and 12 October 2020 (St. Petersburg, Cologne or Sardinia). Points from 2019 and 2020 tournaments are included in the table only if they counted towards the player's ranking as of October 4, 2021.
† The player is not defending points from either 2019 or 2020. Accordingly, his 19th best result is shown in this column instead. ^ Because the 2021 tournament is non-mandatory, the player substituted his 19th best result in place of the points won in this tournament.
Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw: Andy Murray Holger Rune Jack Sock Zachary Svajda J. J. Wolf
The following player received entry using a protected ranking into the singles main draw: Philipp Kohlschreiber
The following players received entry from the qualifying draw: Salvatore Caruso Maxime Cressy Ernesto Escobedo Christopher Eubanks Emilio Gómez Cem İlkel Roberto Marcora Renzo Olivo João Sousa Alejandro Tabilo Botic van de Zandschulp Aleksandar Vukic