Indian Wells Open

The Indian Wells Open is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California, United States. It is played on outdoor hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and is held in March. The tournament is part of the ATP Masters 1000 events on the ATP Tour and part of the WTA 1000 events on the WTA Tour.

The tournament is the best-attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slam tournaments (493,440 in total attendance during the 2024 event); it is often called the "fifth Grand Slam" in reference to this. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden has the second-largest permanent tennis stadium in the world, behind the US Open's Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. The Indian Wells Open is the premier tennis tournament in the Western United States and the second largest tennis tournament throughout the United States and the Americas (behind the US Open in the Eastern United States).

Preceding the Miami Open, it is the first event of the "Sunshine Double" — a series of two elite, consecutive hard court tournaments in the United States in early spring.

Between 1974 and 1976, it was a non-tour event and between 1977 and 1989 it was held as part of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour. Both singles main draws include 96 players in a 128-player grid, with the 32 seeded players getting a bye (a free pass) to the second round.

Location
Indian Wells lies in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), about 125 mi east of downtown Los Angeles.

The tournament is played in the Indian Wells Tennis Garden (built in 2000) which has 29 tennis courts, including the 16,100-seat main stadium, which is the second largest tennis-specific stadium in the world. After the 2013 BNP Paribas Open, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden started an expansion and upgrade of its facilities that includes a new 8,000 seat Stadium 2. The revamping of the tennis center also included a "Pro Purple" interior court color created specifically for the ATP Masters Series and first used at Indian Wells, citing the purple color being 180 degrees and exactly opposite the yellow of the ball.

History
The tournament was founded by former tennis pros Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore. It has been known by a number of names, and accepted numerous corporate sponsorships, throughout its existence. The French multinational banking group BNP Paribas has held the naming rights since 2009.

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 and Women's Tennis Association tours.

The Indian Wells Open has become one of the largest events on both the men's and women's tours. In 2004, the tournament expanded to a multi-week 96-player field. Winning the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open back to back has been colloquially termed the Sunshine Double. Dubbed the "Grand Slam of the West", it is the most-attended tennis tournament in the world other than the four Majors, with over 450,000 visitors during the 2015 event.

In 2009, the tournament and the Indian Wells Tennis Garden were sold to Larry Ellison.

On March 8, 2020, the tournament was postponed, and later canceled, to halt the potential spread of COVID-19.

Williams sisters boycott
Venus and Serena Williams refused to play the Indian Wells tournament from 2001 to 2014 despite threats of financial sanctions and ranking point penalties. The two were scheduled to play in the 2001 semifinal but Venus withdrew due to an injury. Amid speculation of match fixing, the crowd for the final loudly booed Serena when she came out to play the final and continued to boo her intermittently through the entire match, even to the point of cheering unforced errors and double faults. Williams won the tournament and was subsequently booed during the awards ceremony. Nine days later, while attending the Ericsson Open, Richard Williams, Serena and Venus's father, stated racial slurs were directed at him while in the stands at Indian Wells. He said that while he and Venus were taking their seats for the final, multiple fans used the racial slur and one spoke of skinning him alive. When asked about her father's allegations, Venus said "I heard what he heard." Indian Wells tournament director Charlie Pasarell said he was humiliated by the crowd's reaction, adding, "I was cringing when all that stuff was going on. It was unfair for the crowd to do that."

After a phone call from Larry Ellison (the multi-billionaire founder of Oracle, tennis enthusiast and most recent owner of the tournament), Serena Williams returned to Indian Wells in 2015, ending her 14-year boycott of the event. Venus Williams ended her boycott by competing in Indian Wells the next year.

ATP Tour

 * ATP Tour Masters 1000
 * Grand Prix Super Series
 * List of ATP Tour top-level tournament singles champions
 * Tennis Masters Series records and statistics

WTA Tour

 * WTA 1000 tournaments
 * WTA Premier Mandatory/5
 * WTA Tier I tournaments
 * List of WTA Tour top-level tournament singles champions