Novak Djokovic lands in Carlos Alcaraz half of BNP Paribas Open men’s draw

The 2026 BNP Paribas Open men’s draw is out and fans could see a rematch of the Australian Open final in the semis as No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic lands in the same half as world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.

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A 24-time Grand Slam champion, Djokovic has remained in pursuit of an all-time record-breaking 25th major trophy with a runner-up finish in Melbourne, but ran into an on-fire Alcaraz who is yet to lose a match in 2026.

Alcaraz followed up his Australian Open victory, which made him the youngest man to complete the Career Grand Slam, with another title run in Doha, allowing him to arrive in Tennis Paradise in form and undefeated to start the year.

The Spaniard gets an interesting road to another potential BNP Paribas Open title, with dynamic cousin duo Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot both landing in his section of the draw alongside former world No. 2 Casper Ruud, who is his projected fourth-round opponent.

Djokovic anchors the second quarter of the draw alongside top-ranked American Taylor Fritz, a former Indian Wells champion and the No. 7 seed at this year’s event. Djokovic gets the popcorn fourth-round clash with defending champion Jack Draper, who has played only a handful of matches since last summer.

Seeded No. 14th, Draper enjoyed a breakthrough run in Tennis Paradise 12 months ago to win his first Masters 1000 title. He followed that up with a second Masters final at the Mutua Madrid Open two months later but an arm injury has halted his progress since then. Following a return to action at Davis Cup, Draper, who missed both last year’s US Open and this year’s Australian Open, played solid tennis at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and will face even more pressure at the BNP Paribas Open.

The bottom half of the draw sees No. 2 seed Jannik Sinner eager to reset the narrative on his 2026 season after surprising defeats in Melbourne and Doha. The former world No. 1 lost his Australian Open title to Djokovic in a five-set semifinal and suffered another upset to Jakub Mensik at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open last month.

Sinner missed out on competing at the BNP Paribas Open in 2025 while serving a suspension stemming from a pair of positive tests for the banned substance Clostebol, and so can only gain points over the next few months—an ideal position given Alcaraz’s 3000+ lead atop the ATP rankings.

No. 8 seed Ben Shelton is Sinner’s projected quarterfinal foe. The 23-year-old is looking to rebound from a quarterfinal defeat to Sinner at the Australian Open, one that increased Sinner’s head-to-head lead to 0-1 vs. the American.

Still, Shelton poved his mettle on the Masters 1000 level last summer when he won the National Bank Open in Toronto and is coming to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden fresh off a victory at the ATX Open in Dallas.

Click here to view the full men’s draw.