The Indian Wells Masters (now sponsored by BNP Paribas and officially called the BNP Paribas Open) is an annual tennis tournament held in Indian Wells, California, United States.
The tournament is a Masters 1000 event on the men's tour and is a Premier Mandatory event on the women's tour having as main sponsor the French bank BNP Paribas. Between 1974 and 1990 it was a major tournament of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour and part of the Grand Prix Championship Series. The event, held in March, is one of two tour events (besides the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida) in which main draw play extends beyond eight days. The women's main draw usually starts on Wednesday and the men's main draw starts on Thursday. Both finals are held on Sunday of the following week. Both singles main draws include 96 players in a 128-player grid, with the 32 seeded players getting a bye to the second round.
The tournament is played on hard courts and is the best attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slam tournaments, with over 370,000 visitors during the event. It has the second largest tennis stadium in the world.
Famous quotes containing the words indian, wells and/or masters:
“If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me.”
—Chief Joseph (c. 1840–1904)
“All through the nineties I met people. Crowds of people. Met and met and met, until it seemed that people were born and hastily grew up, just to be met.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“Today as in the time of Pliny and Columella, the hyacinth flourishes in Wales, the periwinkle in Illyria, the daisy on the ruins of Numantia; while around them cities have changed their masters and their names, collided and smashed, disappeared into nothingness, their peaceful generations have crossed down the ages as fresh and smiling as on the days of battle.”
—Edgar Quinet (1803–1875)