14 Years of BNP Paribas Open Indian

[jimlosaltos]

This month's TPN Tour Portrait features the BNP Paribas Indian Wells men's singles winners for the past 14 years - from Ivan Ljubicic to Carlos Alcaraz. It's both a mini-history lesson and a tribute to one of the best run and most enjoyable venues/ events in pro tennis. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. We'll feature the women's singles champs in the next issue.

I'll post a brief history of the event in this thread later, but first some of my most vivid memories from these players at Indian Wells are, in no order:

* Fed vs Rafa several times, actually. But in particular one rain-interrupted match, a semifinal, I believe. Fed was about to serve for the match when the rain returned. After a 20-30 minute delay, lengthened by a Rafa bathroom break, Fed calmly walked up to serve. As he described later to Brad Gilbert, Fed was set to serve wide, then as he tossed the ball and watched Rafa, in that unique way Fed looks at his opponent even as he's releasing the ball, Fed changed his mind and hit a winner up the T. Bang. Over. As Gilbert said, awestruck, "I can't believe you can do that."

* Thiem Beating Fed. It was a great match with Thiem coming from behind to win his first Masters. Wonderful, high quality, offensive tennis. But what I remember is Fed congratulating Thiem at the net. Fed was beaming and hugged the younger player like a Dad congratulating his son the first time the son beat him at the local golf course. I've seen this from Fed on a handful of occasions where he seemed even happier than his opponent for their win. Stan Wawrinka, getting his first Masters off Fed at Monte Carlo, comes to mind.

* Delpo Beating Fed. Two of my favorite players clashed in a ferocious shoot out featuring two historic forehands. Fed hit a bullet on match point. As Delpo walked up to congratulate Fed -- and fans started to pour out since it had been a long match in intense heat -- Delpo tossed his hand up for a 'what-the-heck I might as well challenge." To everyone's surprise, including Delpo and the Chair (Mohammed Leni was it?) Delpo won his Hawkeye appeal. Suddenly, two, great Delpo forehands and seemingly only an instant later the Tower of Tandil had won, grabbed the trophy almost-literally out of Fed's hands - before many of the fans had gotten back to their seats. Half the crowd didn't realize what happened.

* Rafa vs Alcaraz, a semifinal in a literal sandstorm. I still can't believe they made them continue playing as swirling wind tossed sand in their eyes and made balls curve all over the court. Rafa's smile and shrug at Carlos as the chair called play on was impish and priceless. At one point Rafa lined up to take a routine backhand. You could see the ball curve dramatically in the air from Rafa's right to left, so he switched to a forehand. Then the ball curved back, literally precessing a large S in the air. So Rafa pivoted again, returning to his backhand side. It wasn't tennis, but it was unique. Finally, the wind ebbed and the third set returned to tennis, Rafa winning.

[jimlosaltos]

A Brief History of BNP Paribas Open, aka Indian Wells

Across our annual pilgrimage to Indian Wells tennis for 14 or more years, we've seen many changes. But Indian Wells remains our favorite tennis tournament. It's entertaining and it's simply run better than any other we've been to. Sorry this is too long for a forum post, but I wanted to share the event background and on the tennis career of main founder, Charlie Pasarell, that some will find of interest. Hope you do.

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It's accessible. We take a shuttle bus from our hotel, and everything there is in easy walking distance. It's well run. Entrance lines that take seemingly forever at, say, the US Open are relatively pain free - transparent bag, scanner, tickets on your phone and you're through in no time.

Even ticketing is better. Ordering and reselling on AXS isn't perfect, but it's heaven compared to the reprehensible Ticketmaster monopoly. Reselling on AXS if free. Yup, no egregiously huge fees to either buyer or seller, ala StubHub or Ticketmaster (but you can't sell below face value, so don't close your StubHub account quite yet). Food's decent and everything is contactless.

It's not perfect. The courts are egregiously slow for no good reason I can find. Prices have more than quadrupled while we've been coming. The $50 hamburger has arrived.

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And Nobu's, once a fun, if expensive place to be and be seen is now a mosh pit with $20 bites of fish after a 3 hour wait. Sigh. As Casey Stengel said, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." View of stadium 2 court from Nobu window counter.

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Here's a little background from Wikipedia, the Desert Sun, and elsewhere. Indian Wells is a somewhat unusual site, since it is a destination tourist spot in the desert, with a limited local population, made famous, along with adjacent Palm Springs, by Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack (actually, Bogie was the original Rat Pack leader). Most of the attendees either drive or fly in.

"The tournament was founded by former tennis pros Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore. It has been known by a number of names, and accepted numerous corporate sponsorships, throughout its existence. The French multinational banking group BNP Paribas has held the naming rights since 2009. Originally the women's tournament was held a week before the men's event. In 1996, the championship became one of the few fully combined events on both the Association of Tennis Professionals and Women's Tennis Association tours."

Pasarell had quite a tennis career. "In 1969, Pasarell played Pancho Gonzales in what was, until 2010, the longest match in Wimbledon history in terms of the number of games played. The 41-year-old Gonzales finally defeated the 25-year-old 22–24, 1–6, 16–14, 6–3, 11–9 after a battle that lasted 5 hours and 12 minutes.[4] Pasarell was also the first man to beat the reigning champion in the first round at Wimbledon when in 1967 he beat Manuel Santana. In 1968, he narrowly lost to Ken Rosewall in the second round. Rex Bellamy, tennis correspondent of The Times, started his article the next day by stating that "The first open Wimbledon produced its first great match", and further stated: "Among the men who climb to high places there is a saying that the mountains bring you three things - men, battle, and beauty. The men are true, the battle is the only kind worth fighting, and the beauty in life. Rosewall and Pasarell took us to the mountains yesterday - and the air was like wine." Finally, after covering other matches, the article ends, "Yet the abiding memory will be of Rosewall and Pasarell. If they show films in Valhalla, this is a match the gods will want to see."[5] Pasarell achieved his best result at Wimbledon in 1976, when he lost in the quarterfinals to former world No. 1 Ilie Năstase, after wins against Jun Kamiwazumi, Vijay Amritraj, Adriano Panatta (ranked No. 4 in the world, having won both the Italian and French Opens), and Phil Dent.

"Long matches
Pasarell's match with Gonzales was the longest at Wimbledon until beaten in 2010 by the match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes over three days and comprised 183 games. However, in 1968 on February 17, Allison Danzig of The New York Times reported that Pasarell played 9 hours and 12 minutes of tennis in the U.S. National Indoors in just over 24 hours. He played a 6-hour 20 minute doubles with Ron Holmberg losing to Mark Cox and Bobby Wilson 26–24, 17–19, 30–28. Then less than 15 hours later the reigning two time champion lost in front of a capacity crowd to Clark Graebner in a semifinal that lasted 3 hours 12 minutes the score being 16–14, 4–6, 8–6, 4–6, 6–3. Danzig wrote: "In all, Pasarell played 217 games in just over 24 hours, and that must stand as a record in a National Championship tournament". These matches were played when the game was slower[citation needed] and also no seats were allowed on the court."

Like many tennis tournaments, groups of investors come and go in innumerable configurations. What this description from Wikipedia doesn't mention that I remember, is that Indian Wells was almost shipped off to Singapore decades ago when it faced a cash crunch, with a heavy $77 million facilities mortgage that hindered the tournament’s financial stability.

But, as I understand it, but not covered in any articles I can unearth, the USTA stepped in and helped arrange a bailout. That might be the last time the USTA helped a pro tournament not on the East Coast.

"The $77 million facility was built in March 2000, and was designed by Rossetti Associates Architects. It was a result of former no. 1 US player, tournament chairman and owner of the BNP Paribas Open, Charlie Pasarell, partnering with Raymond Moore, to privately raise the money to fund the $77 million development. It was financed by IMG, led by Bob Kain. When Pasarell and his partners first purchased 88 acres of sand in the middle of the Coachella Valley, many doubted its ability to attract people, as all other major tournaments are located in large metropolitan areas, such as Paris, London, New York City, and Melbourne. However, subsequent owners have shared and built on Pasarell's vision for the center.

In 2006, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden was bought by a group of private investors including Tennis Magazine owners George Mackin and Bob Miller, Pete Sampras, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Greg Norman, Charlie Pasarell, and Raymond Moore. In December 2009, Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, became the owner of both the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and the BNP Paribas Open. A long-term tennis enthusiast, Ellison continually invests in upgrading the facility, including a new, permanent Stadium 2 with 8,000 seats, two 19,000-square-foot shade structures, 29 world-class courts, 23 lighted courts, upgraded locker rooms and fitness areas, a 108-seat press room and 18 broadcast booths, eight acres of outdoor exposition space and 54 acres of outdoor parking.

Larry Ellison bought the event in 2019, and invested to take it to another level. This year's event set a new attendance record with 493,440 and if they counted the bees that invaded center court, might have reached half a million "attendees". Not all paying nor invited. The most-attended day (40,805) and night sessions (15,483) of the tournament both took place on Saturday, March 9

“Indian Wells was maybe playing second fiddle to Miami,” recalls Woodforde, who won 17 doubles titles and a mixed doubles title, in addition to gold and silver Olympic medals.

Despite the picturesque setting and tournament owners who knew what they were doing, the event was still very much in its infancy. Attendance had grown to nearly 100,000, yet some players were sent to play in front of a few dozen fans five miles away at La Quinta Resort because of the limited number of courts at Hyatt Grand Champions.

"The solution to that problem was Larry Ellison, the billionaire tech mogul with a passion for tennis who purchased the BNP Paribas Open and the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from Pasarell, Moore and 32 tournament investors for $100 million in 2009. This year’s tournament, which runs from March 4-17, marks the 10th since Ellison purchased it, and the expansion over that decade has been significant."

It's not just the investment, it's Ellison's attention to detail and since he has a home in Palm Springs, he's not an absentee owner, indifferent to the product's quality and its impact on the local community.

Desert Sun: "Woodforde is one of many who have noted how the tennis experience from his playing days has dramatically evolved. It used to be about purchasing a ticket, he said, and staying in that seat all day for a handful of matches. It was for die-hard tennis fans.

That experience has changed. Now, there’s a little something for everyone and when he goes to watch tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, he can stay in his seat for too long. There’s an experience around the grounds that gets him excited to see the new additions that Ellison and his staff have implemented since the previous year."

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian..._Open#WTA_Tour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian..._Tennis_Garden

https://www.desertsun.com/story/spor...ok/2986768002/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Pack

And this is the view from the hotel.

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[jimlosaltos]

I'll repeat an old story I posted in the tournament thread. Legend has it that every men's singles winner has eaten at the local Ristorante Mamma Gina.

I first heard this story related by Cam Norrie, who confirmed that he had eaten there (even though carbo-loading with pasta wasn't in his diet).

This year, Mama Gina opened a pop-up on the tennis grounds. A woman in the family that owns the restaurant (there are two in the area now, plus the pop-up) confirmed the story to me BUT, it's in her best interest to keep the story going, so she might be tempted to fib