Indian Wells--the Fifth Major

On my twitter, I had signed up for the US Open twitter feed. Somehow that also signed me up for BNP Paribas Open--they are very prolific. So I have known about the tennis match at Indian Wells like having a front row seat. They tweet much more than the US Open (they tweet more than Adrienne, but Megan took me off, so I don't know if they tweet more than Megan).

In years past, I have been tempted to get in the car and go to Indian Wells--it is close enough to drive, but I would probably not want to go both ways in one day--it's probably less than 1/2 way to Vegas. However, after my experience at UCLA (near sun poisoning), I hesitated. Each year I would hear a friend say how they saw amazing matches and how he watched Nadal, Federer and Djokovic play in person. I'm jealous, but ultimately not willing to drive (yet).

All of this front row seat information when I am not going to go personally, has been difficult, because most of the tournament is not televised. Except this weekend. It started Friday night on ESPN2--Sharapova v. Wozniacki. Caroline beat Maria pretty soundly, but Maria is always exciting to see, as is Caroline Wozniacki. She is far more consistant than Petrova or Jankovic, so without the Williams sisters, she is the player to watch. She's playing the finals today (unless it is raining there--it is pouring here) against Bartoli. That should be no contest for Caroline. Bartoli is a solid player, but I wouldn't drive 40 miles to see her.

Television yesterday was on ABC for the Men's semifinals. And they were some blockbusters: Nadal v. Del Potro (still not 100% coming off of an injury so Nadal didn't have too much trouble taking care of him) and Federer v. Djokovic. I don't know what is with Fed--he knows how to win--he knows how to handle Djok's game, but he didn't execute. Djok played really well, so that probably didn't hurt his changes. So the final is going to be Nadal and Djok. [Now I wish I were willing to drive so far (and could still get tickets).]

So this should be great that tennis is on ABC, but I actually would rather just see it on ESPN2. ABC was interupted for news breaks. I'm not saying the news wasn't important, but I taped the tennis--I had already heard the news. Next, the matches went over the time. Luckily I anticipated this and taped the following show also. But ABC was going to throw it over to ESPN2 or ESPN Classic when they ran out of time. I can't anticipate that and tape every channel. [Although that is my new plan for taping tennis--que up all the sports channels where it could get thrown after the scheduled end time just in case.]

One thing I didn't get to see much (very little tv coverage) that makes this event unusual is that all the singles stars play doubles. I was so excited when the Williams sisters started playing doubles. Doubles is a lot of fun to watch and I love the Bryans, so I was hoping to see Nadal play doubles. Unfortuneately, he lost on Friday, but tv did show the final set. It was Nadal/Lopez v. Federer and Wadrinka (sp wrong, oh well). Fed won, but seeing Nadal's big smile of congratulations at the end was worth the price of admission. He went out just to have fun and he clearly enjoyed himself.

A very rich fellow who loves tennis bought this event and I guess was the reason that the semi's and the final were televised. I'm glad that there's a great event in the US (just in case, someday, I am willing to drive--the fact that I can, makes it that much more exciting), because from the sound of it, the other big events that attract all the best players thoughout the year that are not at the four majors are in Saudi Arabia--I'm really not going there. I'm such a girl.