BNP Paribas Open Event History

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN WELLS BNP PARIBAS OPEN
The BNP Paribas Open started as an ATP fund-raising event in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Mission Hills Country Club in the Coachella Valley, California, in 1976. Charlie Pasarell, who had at one time, been the top-ranked U.S. player, was an ATP Board Member and Tennis Director at the La Quinta Hotel. He successfully promoted the Coachella Valley to the ATP Board, whilst concurrently encouraging the hotel’s owners to build facilities befitting such an event. His efforts led to La Quinta becoming the home of the event in 1981. The development of the tournament coincided with the completion of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2000, bringing the tournament a new name (Indian Wells Tennis Masters). The change to another superior venue brought about increased media attention for the event. This, in turn, led to greatly increased attendance and prize money, with the event acquiring international status. 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 (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tours. The event has previously been titled the Newsweek Champions Cup, the Pilot Pen Classic and the Congoleum Classic. The women’s tournament was also previously called the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells (1989-1990), the Virginia Slims of Palm Springs (1991) and the Evert Cup (1992-1999) in honour of Chris Evert.

The Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open today
The event is part of the ATP Masters Series on the men’s tour and is a Tier 1 event on the women’s tour. It has become one of the largest events on both tours. The tournament is played on hard courts and is the best-attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slam tournaments, with over 300,000 spectators attended during the two-week event. The ladies’ singles usually starts on a Wednesday with the final on the Saturday of the following week. The men’s singles’ event starts on a Friday, with the final on the Sunday of the following week. Both singles events include 96 players, with 32 “seeds” getting a bye into the second round. The Pacific Life Open for 2008 will be held from March 10th to 23rd. In both the men’s and ladies’ events, the fields are suitably competitive for an event of this nature. All four semi-finalists from the recent 2008 Australian Open have entered. In the men’s tournament, Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are likely to be leading lights. For the ladies, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic seem sure to make their presence felt. Additionally, it has recently been reported that former ladies’ World No.1 Lindsay Davenport ( a three-time Grand Slam winner) has also entered this year’s tournament.