Since 1974 the Indian Wells Masters has been a renowned masters series tournament based in the incredibly, ridiculously wealthy yet not obnoxiously ostentatious town of Indian Wells, near Palm Springs, California. And every year at that ATA shootout four tickets to the Fila Suite are auctioned off. This year, Jeff Hagar made the winning bid, so over spring break the Hagar’s, with me in tow, traveled to California's Mojave Desert to watch some tennis. On the way we made a stop in San Diego, America's chillest town, to take a tour of the University of San Diego's campus, and talk with their tennis coach. We spent a night and a morning in SD after that, eating breakfast on the beach. We then headed to Indian Wells.

 

    When we arrived at the hotel, the same one the players were staying at, we were greeted with a valet and a man with a luggage cart. After some haggling and chatting with the hotel clerk, as well as some lobby-wandering, we went up to our room. As our elevator door closed Josh reported seeing Agnieszka Radwanska waiting for the next elevator. We arrived at our room, which was furnished with two beds, two closets, a television, a balcony, a bathroom, a fully stocked mini fridge, and plenty of open space. Our luggage man was very accommodating, providing us with water and whatever else we needed.

 

    Once we were settled we headed to the “tennis garden” via the complementary shuttles provided by the hotel. Our bus driver was unbelievably skilled, making turns I thought not possible and coming within inches of curbs when necessary but never hopping them, causing me to up his tip by 200%. As we strolled into the Indian Wells facility we walked past the practice courts where we watched the one and only Roger Federer practice with some guy that looked like Tommy Haas but wasn't Tommy Haas. This close encounter with greatness made me realize that in person Fed's strokes do not have the same god-like quality, and do not obtain perfection, but rather show that impeccable technique is not necessary to hit an impeccable ball. Anyway, after watching Fed for a few minutes and acquainting ourselves with the grounds we attempted to head on into the stadium, but found that because our tickets were for the night session and it was still the day session we couldn't go to our seats. Instead we were redirected to the nosebleed section, where we were allowed to go. Josh and I arrived in time to watch the second set tiebreak between Roddick and Gasquet. We watched a very exciting tiebreaker, in which Roddick hit an absolutely disgusting down the line forehand pass and Gasquet ripped some backhands, including a down the line return from 12 feet behind the baseline to win the match. After this we ventured about the grounds some more, visiting the pizza stand for a deliciously sub-par meal, looped back around the practice courts, and eventually headed back into the stadium. We were allowed to go to our actual seats now, where we watched Rafa take on Somdev Devvarman.

 

    We watched a very exciting match, in which Devvarman, whom I was rooting for whole-heartedly, got bullied around the court by Rafa, but managed to use his speed, guile, and one absolutely phenomenal down the line forehand to keep it close. Sadly, Somdev choked in both sets, losing his serve at 5-6 in the first and 4-5 in the second. The match was great, but was slightly tarnished by the wonderfully vocal but not incredibly knowledgeable fellow sitting directly behind us who, among other things, seemed to think that Somdev's forehand was awful, that rooting for the underdog was cool until the underdog was about to win, and that Devvarman was not a particularly Indian name. Next up after Rafa and Somdev were Fed and Ryan Harrison. This match was also very exciting. Josh and I missed Harrison's climactic double faults to open the match, but we watched the rest. Harrison is very talented in person as well as on TV, doesn't have any huge flaws in his game, and hits the stuffing out of second serve returns. We watched the underdog once again give the favorite a run for his money, and once again fall short. We headed back to the hotel and hit the sack.

 

    The next morning Josh and I went to hit on the hotel tennis courts before the day session. As we were waiting for the elevator neither of us was paying very much attention and as the door opened we looked up just in time to see a large man who happened to be none other than Jo-Wilfried Tsonga charge out of the elevator with a plate piled high with breakfast. We continued to the tennis courts, only to find them full, and hit in the parking lot with some dead balls we found. Afterwards we went back to the room, showered, and went down to breakfast at one of the ridiculously over-priced but still delicious hotel restaurants. At breakfast we saw Igor Andreev sitting at a table not far away.

 

    After breakfast we headed to the tennis center, arriving just in time to watch Victoria Azarenka retire. But we did get our first taste of the Fila suite. It consisted of a small room with a couch and a television, as well as a fridge full of sodas and sandwiches. There was a door to our seats, and each row of seats had a sort of long skinny table in front of it to put all your food and drink on. It was very nice. After we had taken it in, we headed out to meander about the grounds for a little while, stopping by the fastest serve tent, and getting some food. About half an hour later, as we walked by the big screen on the side of the stadium, we glanced up to see that Tommy Robredo had withdrawn from the morning's other match. Our day session was matchless. We decided to go back to the hotel. We went to the pool, and were sitting in the shallow end when we stopped to take in our surroundings. Chilling in the deep end was Tsonga. Sitting in a beach chair behind us was Michael Llodra, eating an ice cream sandwich. To our left, seated next to the pool, were Jurgen Melzer and Phillip Petzschner, doing a little doubles strategy work. Needless to say, it was pretty cool. Later, we headed back to the tennis garden for the night session. There we first watched Mark Knowles and Michal Mertinak play Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in doubles. In the first set Fed and Wawrinka administered an absolute beatdown. Knowles and company made it closer in the second set, but couldn't pull it out. Next we saw the great Ivo Karlovic take on Rafa. Once again, I was rooting pretty hard against Rafa. Ivo and Rafa traded serves throughout the first set, and at 4-3 Rafa, Josh and I left to get some ice cream. We came back just in time to see that it was 5 all and Ivo was up 40-0 on Rafa's serve. Ivo got the break and then served out the set. But then he decided to leave the building in the second set, losing it 6-1. We then settled in for a nailbiter of a third. There were no breaks, and it came down to a breaker. Despite saving two match points on Rafa's serve, Ivo couldn't pull it out in the end, sailing a forehand wide to lose the match. After Ivo and Rafa came a women's doubles match, Radwanska and Hantuchova vs. Vesnina and Mirza. As most people left the stadium, the officials opened up the lower seating to everybody. Josh and I migrated to the front row, and watched the match from there, which turned out to be a total beatdown. After the match, we headed to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning we had tickets to the day session to use before we left for the airport. We watched Gasquet get up a break on Djokovic in both sets, then seem to stop caring and tank. It was mildly frustrating. After Richard's marvelous array of disinterest, we hit the Ontario Airport and came home.

 

    While witnessing pro tennis first hand was definitely entertaining, it was also quite enlightening. It opened my eyes to what's required to be a professional tennis player. While sound technique is encouraged, perfect technique is definitely not required. More important is understanding your own technical deficiencies and finding ways to cover them up or work around them. Understanding your game is vital at higher levels of tennis. Another thing that dawned on me was how much of their lives these men and women have spent playing tennis. For the most part, these people have essentially grown up on tennis courts. And I suppose that the land of lost childhoods is also the land of tennis stardom sometimes. But while I recognized this slightly dispiriting truth, I also realized that repetition is vital to success. Any advantages given through natural talent can be equaled with repetition and hard work. So I don't have to spend my life hitting tennis balls, but the more I do hit the better I get.

    All in all, I greatly enjoyed my trip to Indian Wells, and I thank those who made it possible. And most of all, I encourage you to bid on the Fila Suite next year. Thank you and good night.