INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA - All eyes were on the draw ceremony at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday afternoon in Palm Springs, as unseeded former champions Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka - and the stars of the WTA's Top 10 - all learned their fate for the first Premier Mandatory event of 2018.
A potential all-Williams third-round match will be on the cards in the bottom half of the draw in Palm Springs, as Serena makes her return to competitive singles play against Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas in the first round.
The winner will face No.29 seed Kiki Bertens -- in No.8 seed Venus' section of the draw on the bottom half.
A match between the two sisters would be the first meeting between the two since Serena's last competitive singles match before announcing her pregnancy last year: the 2017 Australian Open final, where Serena won her 23rd Grand Slam title.
Joining the Williams sisters in the bottom half, Azarenka was drawn in a first-round match against Great Britain's Heather Watson, with the winner to face US Open champion and No.13 seed Sloane Stephens.
No.20 seed Daria Kasatkina also features in the section, with No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki anchoring the round of 16.
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On the other side of the draw, Sharapova was drawn to face rising Japanese star Naomi Osaka, with the winner to face Agnieszka Radwanska in No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza's section of the draw in the top half.
Muguruza has another high-profile unseeded player in her section; the winner of the first round match between wildcard Eugenie Bouchard and a qualifier will be her second-round foe.
Top seed Simona Halep is on course for a French Open final rematch against Jelena Ostapenko in the projected quarterfinal in top quarter of the draw, while No.3 seed Muguruza and No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova round out the second quarter.
On the bottom half, Wozniacki is projected to face No.7 seed Caroline Garcia in the last eight, while No.4 seed Elina Svitolina is slotted in the quarter with Venus.
Defending champion and No.24 seed Elena Vesnina landed in Garcia's quarter, and has a projected third round meeting with No.10 seed Angelique Kerber.
