Paul McNamee, former champion player and Australian Open tournament director, has joined Back Page Lead as a regular tennis columnist.

For the next 11 days the respective men's and women's tennis circuits bisect on the hardcourts at Indian Wells, a tennis oasis in the Californian desert. It represents an opportunity for tennis pilgrims to escape the grip of northern winter and enjoy the sunshine and the outdoors in the company of the best players in the world.

Indian Wells is the first ATP Masters 1000 event for the year on the men's tour, and also a Premier event on the women's tour and is therefore mandatory. The combination of fresh desert air and sunshine brings a sense of optimism, and in the case of the ATP Tour, underlines a new era of sponsorship by Corona, a global beverage with origins just south of the California border.

Indian Wells is in the mountains, so the ball flies a bit quicker than at sea level, and the courts have traditionally been slower to compensate. Nearly all the favourites will be there (the Williams sisters being notable omissions), including the members of the Belgian renaissance, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. Clijsters will be seeded 14, based on her ranking, which was propelled by her US Open victory last September in just the third event of her comeback.

What about Justine? Henin is playing only her third event, having made the finals at both the Brisbane International (losing to Clijsters) and the Australian Open (down to Serena). It is has been a comeback no less impressive that Clijsters, but Indian Wells is only Justine's third tournament back, so she is yet to gain a ranking under WTA rules, which necessitates having played three tournaments in 12 months.

Just like at the Australian Open, Justine is a 'floater', unseeded and dangerous. Now, you can argue this is unfair to Justine, but the greater injustice is to her seeded opponents. At the Australian Open, Elena Dementieva, the fifth seed and in some of the best form of her career had the misfortune to play Justine in the second round. This prime-time match-up was in my opinion the best match of the tournament - a two-set epic that lasted just short of three hours - but which unfortunately pushed the Bernard Tomic match that followed into the wee hours of the morning.

The shotmaking was breathtaking. Both ladies stood toe to toe and seemed to play every shot at full throttle. Poor Elena, an Olympic Gold medallist hoping to win her maiden Grand Slam singles title, gave it her all and fell just short. WTA Tour rules do not give discretion to seed Justine at Indian Wells, so 31st seed Gisela Dulko waits in the second round, fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the third and once again Dementieva possibly thereafter.

I think it is rough justice for the seeded ladies to play Justine so early because it runs counter to the principle of seedings, which is to provide balance in a draw.

Interestingly, the Grand Slams have power to use discretion in the seedings, but it has tended to be invoked only at Wimbledon due to the lack of frequency of grass court tournaments, so those particular events, in the interests of balance, are weighted higher by the All England Club.

I believe the Henin/Dementieva match at the Australian Open demonstrated that, in future, in similar circumstances this discretion should be exercised.

Who knows? Maybe Martina Hingis will catch the comeback bug (yet again) and return in the next 12 months; we can only hope we get to see her genius again. The WTA may stick to their guns for a range of reasons, primarily because precedent, but it may be a matter the Grand Slam Committee ought take up when it meets in Paris in May.

Perhaps it might become known as the Justine Principle - that's OK by me, and maybe Elena too!