The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the

Indian Wells Tennis Garden The Indian Wells Tennis Garden is a tennis facility in Indian Wells, near Palm Springs, California, in the Coachella Valley. The 16,100-capacity Stadium 1 is the largest stadium at the tennis complex, and the second largest outdoor tennis stad ...

Indian Wells, California Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley. Incorporated in 1967, it lies in between the cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta. As of the 2010 Census, the city population was 4,958. The city hosts the sixt ...

, United States. The owner is

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...

, executive chairman and co-founder of Oracle. The tournament director is former world No. 2 player

Tommy Haas Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...

. The tournament is a

Masters 1000 The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...

event on the men's tour and is a

WTA 1000 WTA 1000 tournaments is a category of tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour, governed by the Women's Tennis Association. The old WTA Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments merged into a single highest tier and it is implemented since the r ...

event on the

women's tour A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

. Between 1974 and 1976 it was non-tour event and between 1977 and 1989 it was held as part of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour. The event is one of two tour events (along with the Miami Open), other than the Majors, in which main draw play extends beyond eight days. The women's main draw usually starts on Wednesday and the men's main draw starts on Thursday. Both finals are held on Sunday of the following week. Both singles main draws include 96 players in a 128-player grid, with the 32 seeded players getting a bye (a free pass) to the second round. The tournament is played on

hardcourt A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface and ...

and is the best-attended tennis tournament outside the four

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournaments, it is often called the "fifth Grand Slam". It has the second- largest permanent tennis stadium in the world, behind New York City's

Arthur Ashe Stadium Arthur Ashe Stadium is a tennis stadium at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. Part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, it is the main stadium of the US Open tennis tournament and has a capacity of 23,771, ...

Location

Indian Wells lies in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), about 125 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The tournament is played in the

(built in 2000) which has 29 tennis courts, including the 16,100-seat main stadium, which is the second largest tennis-specific stadium in the world. After the 2013 BNP Paribas Open, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden started an expansion and upgrade of its facilities that includes a new 8,000 seat Stadium 2. The revamping of the tennis center also included a "Pro Purple" interior court color created specifically for the

ATP Masters Series The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...

and first used at Indian Wells, citing the purple color being 180 degrees and exactly opposite the yellow of the ball.

History

The tournament was founded by former tennis pros Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore. 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 The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, a ...

and

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenn ...

tours. The BNP Paribas Open has become one of the largest events on both men's and women's tour. In 2004 it expanded to a multi-week 96 person field, and since then, it along with the following Miami Open, have been colloquially termed the ''Sunshine Double''. Dubbed the "Grand Slam of the West", it is the most-attended tennis tournament in the world other than the four Majors, with over 450,000 visitors during the 2015 event. In 2009, the tournament and the

were sold to

. On March 8, 2020, the tournament was postponed, and later canceled, to halt the potential spread of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

Williams sisters controversy

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

and

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

refused to play the Indian Wells tournament from 2001 to 2014 despite threats of financial sanctions and ranking point penalties. The two were scheduled to play in the 2001 semifinal but Venus withdrew due to an injury. Amid speculation of match fixing, the crowd for the final loudly booed Serena when she came out to play the final and continued to boo her intermittently through the entire match, even to the point of cheering unforced errors and double faults. Williams won the tournament and was subsequently booed during the awards ceremony. The following month at the Ericsson Open, Richard Williams, Serena and Venus's father, claimed racial slurs were directed at him while in the stands, although there is no definitive evidence of this. Neither Venus nor Serena played the tournament until 2015, when Serena Williams played in the tournament, ending her 14-year boycott of the event. Venus Williams ended her boycott by competing in 2016.

Past finals

Men's singles

Women's singles

Men's doubles

Women's doubles

Records

Men's singles

Women's singles

References

External links

Official tournament website

ATP tournament profile

Indian Wells Tennis Garden

Official Tourism Agency of the greater Palm Springs area: Information on hotels, restaurants and more
{{coord, 33, 43, 26, N, 116, 18, 21, W, type:landmark, display=title Tennis tournaments in California Hard court tennis tournaments WTA Tour Sports in Riverside County, California Recurring sporting events established in 1974 ATP Tour Masters 1000

Location

History

Williams sisters controversy

Past finals

Men's singles

Women's singles

Men's doubles

Women's doubles

Records

Men's singles

Women's singles

See also

ATP Tour

WTA Tour

References

External links