Indian Wells

The Indian Wells Open, currently known as the BNP Paribas Open for sponsorship reasons, has been a longstanding joint ATP and WTA event belonging to the 1000 series.

The Indian Wells Open first started as an ATP event in 1974 when it was held in Tucson, Arizona, United States. It moved twice before finally settling in Indian Wells in 1987, and since 1990, the event has been part of the 1000 series.

The WTA event has been going on since 1991 as it was incorporated as the WTA 1000 event when the Tour adopted that name as opposed to the Premier tag of years past. The venue is the famed Indian Wells Tennis Garden, which has several courts, including a 16,100-seater main court where the bigger matches are played.

The event is generally held in March, lasting a fortnight, and is played on outdoor hard court. It is famously part of the Sunshine Double, with the Miami Open being held afterward, and is generally called the fifth Grand Slam due to its popularity with the players.

It generally features superb entry lists rarely missing the biggest names in tennis, and the list of former champions certainly speaks to that. Past winners include tennis legends such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, and many more.

The most successful players in the event's history are Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic on the men's side with five wins apiece, while on the women's side, several players have two (Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Daniela Hantuchova, Serena Williams).

The Williams sisters are lacking in wins as they famously boycotted the event for over a decade after getting booed in previous appearances.