Indian Wells Tennis Tournament March 2009

Review of Indian Wells Tennis Tournament 2008(formerly Pacific Life Open) , Indian Wells, CA.
By Gordon Schaeffer

Looking for the perfect way to spend a week in the sun during the cold wet damp winters?  Well, look no further than the upcoming Indian Wells Tennis Tournament(formerly Pacific Life Open) held March-22nd 2009, in sunny Indian Wells, CA.

                   

The Indian Wells Tournament boasts one of the most prestigious ATP Masters Tournaments and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premiers. The ATP Masters is the men's points based competition for the pros that results in an opportunity to compete in the largest money purse events in professional tennis. The Sony Ericsson WTA is the women's version of this multi tournament event.
 

Indian Wells now joins Miami as the only multi-week, Men and Women's combined professional event outside of the four Grand Slams. In 2008 the tournament became the 5th most attended tennis tournament in the world.  In 2009 over 300 professional men and women will participate in the event.

 

The tournament has become very popular for tennis fanatics on many different levels. Last year

over 330,000 fans attended the event in person. Many who could not attend watched on Fox Sports Network(FSN). The tournament also has enabled live scoring on the main website and site traffic was up dramatically over previous years.

 

Many in the tennis world are of the opinion that the Indian Wells Tennis Garden venue is one of the most fan friendly venues in the world. The Palm Springs temperature in March is usually in the 70's and 80's also contributes to the fan friendly atmosphere.

 

Let me describe the perfect vacation where you can see world class tennis up front and personal, play tennis yourself and enjoy the warm climate of Palm Springs.

 

Held in the second largest tennis stadium in the world (capacity: 16,100) at Indian Wells, CA, the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament showcases the combined talents of the best professional male and female tennis players. It is the world's fifth largest tennis event, and features a purse of over $5 million. The Men's tournament has a 128 main draw(plus 48 qualifiers) and the WTA women's draw is 64(plus 48 qualifiers).

 

As attendance and interest grows each year, The Indian Wells Tournament is fast becoming a journey every fan of world class tennis should make. Tournament Director Charlie Pasarell has done a fabulous job improving the tournament on a yearly basis. It's been said this is "the" choice tournament of pros and fans alike. The combination of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden venue, top players and climate make it a destination tournament that attracts an important inflow of tourist dollars in the Palm Springs economy.  

 

The 2009 Indian Wells Tournament, which is the first tournament of the Tennis Masters Series for 2009, will be played March 9-22nd, 2009. The main draw for women will commence on Wednesday March 11th while the main draw for the men’s will begin a day early this year, Thursday March 12th.

                                            
                  American Marty Fish                     Fish and Djokovic in semis

        
 

 2008 Results

The tournament action and match ups for the 2008 tournament showcased some of the best matches in years. There is so much to see and understand for any ticket holder. By spending some time at the practice courts you can gain an understanding of who's playing well and who is training intensely. This usually transfers over to the matches. 

                       

MEN

The men’s draw for 2008 featured some incredible matches, huge upsets and riveting drama.

If tennis tournaments have an MVP independent of the ultimate winner then American Marty Fish gets the vote for 2008. Fish, the lowest ranked finalist(#98) in nine years played top 5 world class tennis the complete week reaching the final before bowing to Novak Djokovic. For the week Fish went through players like Davydenko, Hewitt and Nalbandian to make it to the semis. In the semis he faced Roger Federer who was on the recovery trail from mono. Fish played brilliant tennis to beat Federer 6-3, 6-2.  Fish ultimately lost to Djokovic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 and gained quite a few new admiring fans not to mention the winner's prize of $555,000.

Djokovic went through the other semi bracket with wins over Sepppi, Kohlscreiber, Canas, Wawrinka and Nadal. The Nadal match was a classic battle with Djokovic emerging the winner. Djokovic played sharp tennis and dominated the match 6-3, 6-2. This was sweet revenge for losing in the 2007 finals to Nadal. 

Another young player who made a great showing at the tournament was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. One of the top matches of the tournament was Tsonga vs Nadal in the quarters. Tsonga has many chances and ultimately ended up losing 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-5.

Tommy Haas was playing excellent tennis during the early rounds. Haas was coming off an injury of 2007 and was ready to prove that he deserved to be Top 5 rankings. Haas has always been injury prone however this could have been his tournament playing incredible tennis to beat Andy Murray 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.  However before the quarterfinal match with Federer Haas withdrew due to a sinus infection.

Women

Charming top seed Ana Ivanovic was the women's champion for 2008. Ivanovic joined Djokovic  making a name for Serbia as a top producer of world class tennis players. She beat second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova who was runner-up for a second straight year by winning 6-4, 6-3. Ivanovic claimed her sixth career WTA Tour title and $332,000 for the winner rewards.

Ivanovic, the 20-year-old Serb who reached the Australian Open final, pushed Kuznetsova twice off the court into forced errors for the 5-4 break then served a love game for the first set. In the second set, the two traded early breaks but Kuznetsova was under increasing pressure and lost the last four games.

Kuznetsova, runner-up to Daniela Hantuchova last year, ended Maria Sharapova's 18-match winning start to this season in the semifinals 7-6, 6-1. "It's always painful to lose, but I prefer to get to the final losing than to lose in second round," she said. ""I still played a pretty good tournament."

Lindsay Davenport a crowd favorite back from time off with her first child looked a bit rusty. She did make it to the quarterfinals before retiring to glamorous Jelena Jankovic after a 2-6 first set.

All in all, the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament provides the greatest value and best venue of the tennis world. It’s a tournament where a tennis fanatic can come to understand the players at a much greater level.