The Eisenhower Cup, a Tie Break Tens event that has become a mixed doubles showcase at the BNP Paribas Open, returns a week from Tuesday inside Stadium 2 with an eight-team field mixing familiar duos and new pairings.

Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz are back to defend the title they won last year, when the pair shared $200,000. Fritz arrives as a proven mixed-doubles performer; he was one half of a winning pairing with Aryna Sabalenka in 2023.

Emma Navarro and Ben Shelton will team up for the third consecutive year. The American duo captured the event in their debut two years ago. Also reuniting, and appearing together in the California desert for the first time, are Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud. Team Ruudtek reached the final in their debut at the 2025 US Open, winning three matches on the way to a runner-up finish in New York.

Several partnerships from the 2024 edition have been refreshed. Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul return as a team, as do Leylah Fernandez and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Tommy Paul narrowly missed winning the event 12 months ago when he partnered Madison Keys.

Amanda Anisimova, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, has a new partner after playing with Daniil Medvedev the previous year. She will pair with Andrey Rublev, who previously participated in 2024 alongside Maria Sakkari. Medvedev is also back in the field with a new teammate: defending BNP Paribas Open women’s champion Mirra Andreeva, a pairing that follows their appearance together at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

One experienced doubles competitor, Jasmine Paolini, will form an all-Italian tandem with Matteo Berrettini. Paolini played with Lorenzo Musetti in last year’s event.

The Eisenhower Cup remains a compact, spectator-friendly addition to the Indian Wells schedule, offering quick, high-energy mixed doubles matches and a lineup that blends repeat contenders with newly formed teams.

Gabriela Dabrowski moved from No. 10 to a career-high No. 2 in the WTA doubles rankings after winning the WTA 1000 event in Dubai with Luisa Stefani. The result surpasses her previous best of No. 3 and followed a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva in the final.

After the match, Dabrowski used her on-court interview to dedicate the victory. “This week means a lot,” she said. “I’d actually like to just take a second and dedicate this win to my best friend’s father—his name is Mike Smith, and he has been battling cancer for 12 years now, and he is still fighting, and I’ve been thinking about him every single day this week and weeks previous.

“He’s been an inspiration for me, so this one’s to Mike.”

Dabrowski’s return to form has followed a difficult period. In 2024 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, took a three-month hiatus from the tour in the spring and underwent multiple surgeries, as well as further treatments. Thankfully, it was caught early and she won that battle. “I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am okay and I will be okay,” she wrote on Instagram later that year when she announced the news . “Early detection saves lives. I can wholeheartedly agree with this.”

Since resuming competition during the grass-court season in 2024, Dabrowski has captured six WTA doubles titles, bringing her career total to 21. That tally includes two Grand Slam women’s doubles titles at the US Open in 2023 and 2025 alongside Erin Routliffe, a WTA Finals title in 2024 with Routliffe, and six WTA 1000 crowns, the latest coming in Dubai with Stefani. She also owns two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, winning 2017 Roland Garros with Rohan Bopanna and the 2018 Australian Open with Mate Pavic.

The new ranking leaves her just over 1,500 points behind current No. 1 Elise Mertens, 8,483 to 6,938. Dabrowski is defending one title in the next six months, at the WTA 500 in Stuttgart. Mertens is also defending one title in that span at Wimbledon and will defend finals points at back-to-back WTA 1000s in Madrid and Rome.

Stefani also climbed the rankings, moving from No. 14 to No. 10, her first appearance in the Top 10 since the two weeks of Roland Garros in 2024. She reached a career-high doubles ranking of No. 9 in 2021.

Alexandra Eala moved to a new career-high of No. 31 in the WTA rankings after her run to the quarterfinals at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai. The 20-year-old rose from No. 47 and recorded her third Top 10 victory, defeating Jasmine Paolini, before bowing out to Coco Gauff.

Eala surpassed the career-best No. 40 she set two weeks earlier following a quarterfinal appearance in Abu Dhabi. She remains the only woman from the Philippines to reach the WTA Top 100 since the rankings began in 1975 and now stands on the edge of the Top 30 after climbing more than 100 places in the last year.

A year ago she was ranked No. 139, and she entered the 2025 Miami Open at No. 140. Her breakthrough semifinal run at that WTA 1000 event produced her first two Top 10 wins, over Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek, and pushed her to No. 75 for a historic Top 100 debut. She then moved into the Top 50 last November and into the Top 40 after Abu Dhabi, and this Dubai result continues that upward momentum.

The powerful left-hander has reached the quarterfinals or better at WTA events six times over the past 11 months. The first three deep runs came last year: semifinals in Miami (WTA 1000), the final at Eastbourne (WTA 250) and a quarterfinal at Sao Paulo (WTA 250). This season has already produced three more: a semifinal in Auckland (WTA 250), a quarterfinal in Abu Dhabi (WTA 500) and now the quarterfinal in Dubai (WTA 1000).

After her victory over Paolini in Dubai last week, Eala talked about the things she’s learned since she burst into prominence in Miami.

“As the Miami anniversary comes up, I would be coming up on one year of full, really full, just, WTA tournaments. I think that comes with a lot of learnings, a lot of maturity. Especially this past year, 2026, has brought me a lot of love and attention from the fans. It comes with its set of struggles and set of sacrifices, but I think in the end I need to remind myself this is what I’ve been working my whole life for. How many people would love to be in my position? I make it a point every day to really give my all and be grateful for what I have.”

She was then asked about her many, many, many fans. “I saw the stadium was really full. I looked up and there were Filipinos for days!” she described. “It’s really such a blessing to be able to play in those sorts of atmospheres. I am really privileged and thankful that I’m able to introduce kind of this new world, or new sporting world, women’s tennis, to a new demographic. I think they’re really enjoying it. I hope that it would inspire people to take up racquets, young girls and women of all ages to take up sports.”