Tennis From Indian Wells • BNP Paribas 2018

Greg Gonzalez, Frankie, Richard Gonzalez Jr.

 

 

It’s another beautiful day in Indian Wells. The skies are blue, the mountains are surreal – they look like a HOLLYWOOD backdrop. The air smells of flowers from the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens.

I haven’t seen any “Peter Cotton Tails” (bunnies) or the usual “roadrunners”… Maybe the tennis players grunts, squeaks, and screams chased them all away…

 

The stadiums here are all amazing. Stadium 2 is my favorite.

 

I’ve spoken to so many “first time” attendees. They all were happy and really were enjoying the experience. We met a lot of young people who came up from Mexico. (See you later Monica)…

The tennis in Mexico is very strong.

 

Roger Federer and Family are loving the desert. Roger told the crowd after his win that his Mom and Dad love the golf and his kids love the swimming with their daddy the “GOAT”.

 

I watch in awe as all the players from every nation play together, train, travel, practice, eat, tell jokes – everything TOGETHER!

 

They truly are a “Global Family ” If we ever can achieve WORLD PEACE it will be via sports.

 

I saw the best match ever between the WILLIAMS sisters. It was funny hearing the chair umpire say Serena or Venus as she was saying the score.

 

I’m not saying SERENA was at her best so soon after giving birth. I’m saying they didn’t just each go for “winners”; both really put points together with beautiful rallies. It was a great match.

 

Some big news this week was the mutual split between Sven and Maria Sharapova. I know the press release sounded like the usual niceties one says… But in this case, the statements were truly sincere. They are friends and will be lifelong friends. Their four plus years together bonded them.

 

I guess the biggest highlight of the past week was meeting up with the Gonzalez family. The group was, Richard Jr., Danny and Greg Gonzalez. Richard Jr. was a great lefty built like the Great PANCHO but slightly bigger. The “round table ” [it was a square].. Richard Pagliaro, Richard Evans, Francisco, Rob Stone and myself. It was totally amazing. The Richard “PANCHO” Gonzalez Foundation does so much to promote and teach kids tennis. It’s unreal how they’ve all taught tennis and the passion we all share for the sport was clear. The whole meeting is actually all a blur, but Rob Stone has it all on tape.

 

I visited with the Federer clan. Roger’s match for Africa raised 2.5 MILLION dollars in one nite. Wow! So amazing. It is so wonderful all the work the entire family spends putting together the beautiful calendars and everything else. It’s truly a family affair. It was nice to see Gavin Rossdale around watching RF this week. The guy is always smiling and saying hello to everyone. For a rockstar he truly “rocks”….

 

All tourneys are hard to run. But this one seems to have most details down. I think more water stations to refill bottles would be great. After roasting in the sun it sure would be great to have vendors sell water right to your seats during changeovers. It’s HOT and DRY here even when it isn’t HOT.

 

Re: The Million Dollar bonus to win the singles and the doubles Feliciano Lopez is still in the running with Marc Lopez.

Bravo Tommy Haas