How a billionaire built the world's greatest tennis tournament (in the middle of the desert)
Nearly 500,000 people will gather this week in California’s Coachella Valley, roughly 15 minutes from Palm Springs. They will listen to music and eat gourmet food, but they aren’t in town for Coachella; they are in the desert to watch world-class tennis.
Unofficially known as tennis’ fifth grand slam, Indian Wells has become the premier event on the annual tennis calendar. In 2014, the event was voted by the men’s and women’s players as the best tournament on the world tennis tour. This was the first time a tournament had received that distinction from both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in the same year. The Indian Wells event then repeated the feat in 2015 (and every year over the last decade).
Indian Wells will never be able to match the history of tennis’ Grand Slams; the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open have all been around in one iteration or another for more than a century. However, for what Indian Wells lacks in history, it makes up for in quality. The players love going to Palm Springs every year, with Rafael Nadal previously saying “Indian Wells is the best two weeks of the year.”
Indian Wells wasn’t always like this, though. The real story involves a tournament on the verge of extinction, saved by a tennis-loving billionaire whose meticulous attention to detail has reenergized American tennis for an entire generation of players.