Okay; I’m home, I’ve had time to go through my photos, now it’s time to write a short report (if I wanted to make it very short I would just say: I had a marvellous time, LOL).
Watching Indian Wells on the computer last year while winter was still present outside I got the idea of going to the desert myself. Watching tennis wearing a tank top? Sounded just too good
So travel companions were found, flights, tickets and accommodation were booked and on March 11 I arrived in Palm Springs to surprisingly mild temperatures (which would change rather dramatically in the days to come).
Jen and I shared a hotel that was abt. 3.5 miles away from the stadium so the first question was how to get there? Jen had arranged bicycles for the week; we had the bikes for one day and then decided against them. Arriving at the venue all sweaty? And going home at night without lights (the bikes didn’t have any!)? Naw, wasn’t too much fun
. We relied on taxis for the rest of our stay, and we met a lovely lady from MTF who stayed right next door and who gave us a lift during the weekend. Thanks again for that, Fiona!!!!
The Indian Wells Tennis Garden is a wonderful, wonderful venue, the nicest one I’ve been to so far. The scenery is quite dramatic, with the desert mountains (partly snow-capped) in the background. The sales tents and the food court are seperated from the tennis action, and there’s a big lawn with lemon trees for those who need shelter from the sun.
Mist machines:
The main stadium is a huge affair (actually too big for my taste), but all other courts are of decent size (and have mostly free seating). The 12 practice courts are easily accessible and not hidden from view, so hanging out in that area was major fun. We got to see
every player at one point or another. ;D
Map of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden:
„Our“ entrance:
The Stadium seen from the sales and food area:
Main Stadium, view from our seats:
Stadium 3:
Practice courts:
The „famous“ soccer/sunbathing lawn:
Sadly, during the first weekend (which was sold out and incredibly busy), fans caused a bit of a riot during Roger’s and especially Rafa’s practice sessions, so parts of the grounds were subsequently fenced off
; Check out this YouTube clip and you get an idea what happened:
Our first day was
Thursday and we didn’t see a single match! We spent the whole day roaming the premises, hanging out at the practice courts and glimpsing in onto the first round action here and there. Still, the day flew by and we were pretty exhausted when we were back in our room.
We caught some tennis on
Friday, though not much. I watched a bit of the very memorable fight between Zverev and Koellerer on mini-court 8. Koellerer is a cave-man in looks and action who insulted everyone from his opponent to the umpire down to the ball-kids. Some little blonde ball-girls actually had to be replaced because they were at their nerves‘ end. As you can guess a highly entertaining affair
The afternoon gave me two Marat practice sessions and – big highlight – a practice match between Tsonga and Djokovic. Both are show-men and they did their best to entertain the huge crowd that gathered in record time. One of the best matches I witnessed in IW
! Not sure about the final score, though…
In the evening we went to court no. 4 to see Youzhny vs. Troicki. We sat in the third row and were amazed how close we were to the court! No borders, no fences, just a little step seperated us from the lines-man in front of us. Now this was major entertainment!
We ended the evening in the main stadium to see some Doubles action (Roddick/Fish vs. Simon/Chardy). Our seats were waaaaay up! The only reason I knew who was playing was because of the announcement. I decided there and then that I would avoid stadium action from now on.
The 2nd round started on
Saturday and the seeded players were finally in action. We started off with Gulbis-Andreev on court 6 (first row this time, opposite the umpire, it doesn’t really get any better than that!).
Jen (with hat):
We switched to stadium 2 for Gasquet-Llodra (Marat ruined that for me since he decided to practice right after Richie started – a lady has to have her priorities…), then I went to court 8 for some more Doubles (Monfils-Zverev, fun combination)
and we ended up on court 4 for the Croation affair Ancic – Ljubicic. The match went on for about 20 minutes and then Mario retired out oft he blue! He didn’t look sick, he didn’t act sick, he just left!! Poor Mario, I hope he’ll be better soon!
Jen and I left afterwards. We went for dinner and then hung out with Fiona and a few of her friends in one of the player hotels. I wasn’t too impressed with the place but it was fun to see it (and to sit in the garden by a fire with the whole French equipe right next to us).
I don’t know why we checked tennis results, but at 10 pm we discovered that the last match on stadium 2, Gonzo – Hewitt, had just started. We weren’t dressed for a night out in the desert but we decided spontaneously to go back to the tennis garden and watch those veterans play. At 2 am we fell into our beds, frozen stiff. The match had been a lot of fun, though, with crazy Aussie and Chilean fans giving it a soccer atmosphere with their chants and flag waving.
Sunday was the day of Marat’s first match so of course I saw that one. I also got bits and pieces of Chardy-Fish, Sweeting-Del Potro, Haas-Schuettler, and Monfils-Isner. The Tennis Garden was horribly crowded and with so many Americans playing the stands were really full as well. No idea how many tickets were sold, but somehow it felt as if they had gone overboard. Safin – Massu started after the sun went down (which was good because we sat first row facing West…) and thanks to the scheduling I again missed out on Richie (this time in Doubles).
Chaos reigned after the match. In IW, the players are driven to the courts in golf carts. Since Marat took forever giving autographs, the security people let Massu ride off without Marat on board. Hence when he exited the stadium there was no golf carts – but a lot of fans wanting photos, more autographs, a touch oft he hand, a glimpse… Poor Marat wasn’t too happy. The security guys were clearly overwhelmed and tried to get him out of the mess in one piece before the replacement golf cart arrived. Interesting to watch.
Because of Mario’s withdrawal, Marat and Paulo were signed up as the replacement-Double for Ancic-Tsonga. That meant more Marat on
Monday – on court 6! The court sported only Doubles matches that day, so Jen and I became Doubles lovers fort he day – we both arrived early to get prime seats for the Russian.
It also meant – again – that I missed out on Richie who played Verdasco on stadium 2.
A funny Doubles team was the pairing of small, chubby David Nalbandian and tall bean-pole Juan Martin Del Potro. The looked ridiculous together but they played really well, and beat favorites Dlouhy-Paes. Marat and Paulo were a surprisingly good team, and they gave the specialists Melo-Sa a hard time. Unfortunately, Paulo tanked the match in the super tie-break.
My foot and Marat ;D:
After taking a pic with my fave umpires Lars and Mo (who were both super-flattered that they were the wanted men for a change!)
I sprinted over to court 4 to catch a glimpse of Richie (finally!!!!
) during his Doubles match with Wawrinka vs. Kubot-Marach. The Swiss-French pairing did really well and won the match! I joined Jen on stadium 2 afterwards for Cilic-Robredo. We finished the day watching Tsonga-Andreev on TV in our room (with Jen happily sleeping through the first set).
Tuesday, our last day
Even though we had planned on going to the Tennis Garden late, we entered the premises at 10:30 am – a whole 30 min. later than usual ;D Today’s plan was simple. Go to stadium 2, grab a first-row seat (well, first row oft he free seating), and don’t move for the rest of the day!!! The reason: not only Marat was scheduled against Isner, but a mega-Doubles match was on: the Bryan Brothers vs. Rafa!!! Mayhem was in the air. Bad for us, it was super hot. And our seats were in the sun for the first half of the day.
Our seats:
We took terms holding the seats throughout the matches Wozniacki-Radwanska and Melzer-Del Potro. Jen used her time-outs for resting in the shade, I watched a bit of Andy Murray’s Doubles match on court 6 (I sat right behind him) and checked out Marat during his warm-up. Sadly, Safin-Isner was anything but exciting. Marat got bored and frustrated early on, his service didn’t work, and the whole match was over in no time. Bummer. Querrey-Wawrinka made up for it, what a fight! During the Ferrer-Chardy match the audience cheered for whomever was leading – everybody waited for the Bryans and a chance to see Rafa on a small court! The stadium was filled to maximum capacity (5,000 people) and when the players came in the party started. Screaming, clapping, „La Ola“ going through the stadium – the players enjoyed themselves immensely. I have never seen Rafa smile that much and being so relaxed on court while losing! It was the perfect ending for our trip!!! ;D ;D
So, what’s missing? First of all, a photo of me and Jen:
And of course some
player piccies. I decided not to post them here but to give you links so you can look at what(whom)ever you want.
Since this is a Marat forum, I’ll start with him :s82.photobucket.com/albums/j271/davis_2006/IW2009/As for „the rest“, here are a few photos (of course an extremely subjective selection):
s82.photobucket.com/albums/j271/davis_2006/IW2009%20Other%20players/Hope you enjoyed reading.
IF I go to a major US tournament again, it’ll definitely be Indian Wells!!!
! 
Thanks lovely admin 
; Check out this YouTube clip and you get an idea what happened: 
) during his Doubles match with Wawrinka vs. Kubot-Marach. The Swiss-French pairing did really well and won the match! I joined Jen on stadium 2 afterwards for Cilic-Robredo. We finished the day watching Tsonga-Andreev on TV in our room (with Jen happily sleeping through the first set).
