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The Indian Wells Masters or the BNP Paribas Open is underway. The tournament, which is often dubbed as the fifth grand slam, is the most attended ATP 1000 and WTA Premier tournament. Here is a brief timeline of the Indian Wells Masters, all the way from its inception to where it stands today!

The Origin

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It is interesting that the tournament was initially started with the aim of raising funds for the ATP. The venue for this tournament was Tucson, Arizona. Later it was moved to the Coachella Valley.

The Visionary

Charlie Pasarell is the man behind this tournament. He was a native of Puerto Rico and was a former No.1 US player. He was a board member of the ATP and the director of tennis for Landmark Land Co. It was his idea to build new tennis facilities for the tournament outside the La Quinta Hotel. After the 7500-seat tennis stadium was made, Pasarell became the tournament director in 1981.

Newsweek Champions Cup

Pasarell was still not content with his achievement. He was eager to make this event more popular among the players. For the initial five years the La Quinta Hotel served as a successful venue. But Pasarell wanted the event to be a major tournament and for that he needed it to have modern facilities, larger stadium and a permanent stadium.
Pasarell joined hands with Raymond Moore, who was the founder of a company called PM Sports Management. The partnership resulted in Indian Wells being selected as the venue and a luxurious resort and tennis facility being constructed. Newsweek became the title sponsor of the event and this led to the birth of Newsweek Champions Cup held in Indian Wells.

The Step-up

In 1986, some staggering numbers were put in front of the people. 350-room Grand Champions Hotel had 12 courts with a seating capacity of 10000 people. Of the 12 courts, two were grass courts and two clay courts. In 1987 this plan was successfully implemented.

IT WAS ALSO THE FIRST YEAR WHEN AN EVENT, EXCEPT THE SLAMS HELD A MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT TOGETHER.

The Recognition

In 1990, when Hamilton Jordan founded the ATP World Tour, he included Newsweek Champions Cup as one of its elite tournaments. These elite tournaments later came to be known as the ATP 1000 tournaments. In 1992, the women’s event was renamed to Evert Cup in the honor of legendary tennis player, Chris Evert. As the tournament scaled greater heights and received unprecedented recognition, it was categorized under WTA’s “Tier 1” category; the then highest WTA category.

The Indian Wells Tennis Garden

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In 2000, across 54 acres of land, the tournament made the second largest stadium in the world with a seating capacity of 16100. This was made possible after Pasarell teamed up with IMG, the largest sports agency in the world. 2006 saw the IMG withdraw 50% of its interest but new investors- including USTA and legends like Pete Sampras, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert- were quick to chip in.

The BNP Paribas Open

In 2009, BNP Paribas became the official title sponsor and Larry Ellison became the new owner of Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
In 2011 the tournament became the first in the world to have Hawk-eye installed on every court. After taking the tournament to great heights, Pasarell left his position as the leader in 2011.
The following year, Raymond Moore became the new tournament CEO and Steve Simon became the new tournament Director.

The Expansion

In 2013, the expansion of the stadium started and within 11 months the stadium was ready to flaunt a record attendance. In 2014, 431000 people attended the tournament, the highest in the history of any non-grand slam event.

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The Champions

At Indian Wells the prize money for the champion has increased to more than $10 million.
The Men’s singles titles has witnessed Novak Djokovic win the title 5 times. The Serb along with Roger Federer has been in finals of the Indian Wells Masters for 6 times. Lindsay Davenport has reached the women’s singles final on 6 occasions and has won 2 of them.

This year, the tournament is all set to break and make some new records. Let the BNP Paribas Open begin!

World No. 1 Andy Murray faces Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil
Second round action in the top half of the draw at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday features World No. 1 Andy Murray, No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka, No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 8 Dominic Thiem and No. 10 Gael Monfils. There are 11 other seeds on the order of play.
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In the first men’s match on Stadium 1, Tsonga brings a 4-0 FedEx ATP head-to-head record against Fabio Fognini. Tsonga has two wins on clay and hard courts against the Italian No. 2. Tsonga is one of three players (Dimitrov, Sock) with two ATP World Tour titles this season. He also leads the ATP World Tour with 17 match wins (17-3). Fognini is trying to earn his first Top 10 win since beating No. 7 Nadal at the 2015 US Open.
In the next men’s match on Stadium 1, Wawrinka takes a 2-0 head-to-head record against Italian No. 1 Paolo Lorenzi. Wawrinka won both meetings in 2013 in straight sets on clay and grass. Wawrinka is a two-time quarter-finalist (2008, 2011) in Indian Wells. The 35-year-old Lorenzi is looking to post his first career Top 10 win (0-17).
In the evening session, Murray tries to remain unbeaten (4-0) against Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil. Murray, who reached the final in 2009 (l. to Nadal), is one of two former finalists in the top half of the draw along with No. 20 seed John Isner. Murray has captured 10 titles in 14 finals from the 16 tournaments that he has played since last May. Murray comes into Indian Wells with a 12-2 match record on the season after winning his 45th career title in Dubai (d. Verdasco). Pospisil is 3-20 lifetime against Top 10 opponents and he has lost 11 in a row since beating No. 5 Berdych in Washington in 2014.
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On Stadium 2, Thiem opens the day’s action against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in a first-time meeting. In the next match on, Isner takes a 2-0 head-to-head record against lucky loser Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. In the next singles match, American wild card Bjorn Fratangelo plays No. 13 seed Tomas Berdych, who won the previous meeting in straight sets at the 2015 US Open. In the final match, No. 2 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan square off with the wild card team of Nick Kyrgios and Nenad Zimonjic.
On Stadium 3, big-serving Ivo Karlovic, the No. 19 seed, plays Japanese lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine takes on No. 28 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who is seeking his 400th career match win on the ATP World Tour. In the final match on, Monfils meets qualifier Darian King of Barbados.