The beautiful Indian Wells facility is the place where the first Master 1000 of the year takes place , enriched by one of the largest, most modern and functional stadiums in the world. Literally immersed in the California desert. Not a city around, no classic downtown Yankee, with no breathtaking skyscrapers, no gigantic malls, no subways and cars clogged on large ring roads. To get to this singular place you need a long journey: a flight in the city of Angels, then take the mythical Highways towards Palm Springs (a golfer’s paradise), arriving after about 200 miles in this oasis that is nothing short of exclusive, which it appears from nowhere materializing on the horizon from that heat mist as if it were a scenography effect of a Hollywood Tennis Movie, or a hallucinated vision of a lonely traveler in the desert. Stuff from Far West, but the location is just that, we are in the West, and a lot of Far.
The facility where the Indian Wells Master 1000 is staged is active all year round. Various types of activities take place there, not just sports, so that over the years it has become the true cultural center of the town. Pavarotti and Bocelli passed through here, like the NBA in the preseason. Obviously you can play tennis, there is certainly no shortage of fields. Tennis events like pickleball, paddle ball or the NCAA Big West Championships are taking place there quite often too. It is easy to become a member of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden: only $ 350 admission plus $1800 in the 12 months for the maintenance of the fields, small change for the bank accounts of the local gold pensioners, and decidedly convenient compared to many annual fees of tennis clubs or even today’s Vegan Sports Gear. Once associated, you can enjoy many services, including qualified tennis instructors … and probably very patient. Are you just passing through, maybe in Palm Springs for golf? Don’t worry, with just 20 dollars you can play a good hour of tennis, learning anything from using the best Tennis Grips to mastering your tennis shots. Only we advise you to fix in the morning, possibly rather early, under waves of severe sun in these areas, which can become suffocating to say the least (in fact, the final of the Master 1000 is usually played at 12 local time, unusual time for an ATP event) . The facility also organizes important youth events, within the National Junior Tennis League programs. Tennis products are being sold by the best retailers in the world.
The Indian Wells power plant, built on a project by the well-known “Rossetti Associates Architects” who also designed the “monster” of Flushing Meadows, has a capacity of 16,100 seats , very comfortable and all with optimal orientation for following tennis. A stadium practically identical to that of Miami, the “twin” tournament of the American spring. Plus 2 other grand stadiums and many other smaller courts to accommodate the thousands fo fans.
The event has not always sailed in good water. In the mid-2000s it staggered: first a bad page starring the Williams sisters , with their father Richard who thundered against the organizers and above all the audience who he said was extremely rude and racist, forcing his daughters to desert from then on the tournament. An economic earthquake followed, but as of late it has been one of the best tournaments voted by fans and players.
So one of the biggest events of US tennis continues to take place every year in Indian Wells in early March, bringing all the racket champions to the US for the first time this season. Just to ideally retrace that journey that once would have been a western film: from LA in the direction of Palm Springs, crossing the desert of the Coachella Valley up to this golden oasis, out of this world, and from time.
Recent Comments