Indian Wells

Now the Indian Wells tournament, a big event on the tour, has ended.  The following were the interesting occurrences:

The women:

 Vesnina wins.  Elena Vesnina, noted through most of her career for her doubles play, had a fantastic run and won the tournament with a finals victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova.  She had to defeat world #2 Angelique Kerber and Venus Williamns to get there.  Venus again had a very good tournament.  She is closing in on her 37^th birthday, so her trip to the 4^th round was really impressive.  Other notable features of the women’s tournament included the emergence of Kayla Day, a young American, who defeated Lucic-Baroni and came close to beating Garbine Muguruza.  Day has a good serve, especially for someone so young, so she looks like a terrific prospect provided she stays healthy.  Kristina Mladenovic, the French woman who has expressed the most negative feelings about Sharapova’s drug suspension of any woman on the tour, also had a good run.  She beat Simona Halep on her way to the semis where she lost to Vesnina. 

            Karolina Pliskova also had a good tournament, reaching the semis before losing to Kuznetsova.  The match with Kuznetsova was notable for some statements by Chris Evert, who provided expert commentary.  Evert stated that Kuznetsova was the best all court player on the women’s tour, which is clearly untrue.  Certainly both Serena Williams and Aggie Radwanska have better all court skills.  Evert also said that Kuznetsova should avoid playing long points against Pliskova, which is again clearly false.  The object against someone like Pliskova, a hard hitter who moves relatively poorly and hits flat, is to make that player hit as many balls as possible.  Kuznetsova is quite adept at covering the court, so playing long points, especially on Pliskova’ serve, was clearly in Kuznetsova’s interest.  More on commentators’ foibles in a separate future post.

The men:

Federer wins.  Roger Federer did it again, beating his countryman Stan Wawrinka in the final.  That is Federer’s fifth title at Indian Wells.  Considering all that has happened with Federer since Wimbledon last year, two questions come to mind:

1) Will Federer be voted comeback player of the year at the end of 2017?

2) Will Federer ascend to the number one ranking?  This question may seem fanciful, but consider all of the success Federer has had so far this year, the vulnerability of Murray and Djokovic, Federer’s recent dominance over Nadal, and the fact that Federer has no points to defend after Wimbledon.  It could happen!

Other notable events in this side of the draw were: 

Djokovic and Murray losing early.  Murray lost in the second round to Vasek Pospisil of Canada, and Novak went out to Nick Kyrgios in the third round.  Neither of these guys has a tight grip on men’s tennis.  Given that Novak won the tournament last year, he will lose a substantial number of ranking points.  That trend will continue in the Miami Open.  Djokovic won it last year but will not defend the title this year because of an elbow problem. 

Kyrgios plays well.   Nick Kyrgios engaged in some antics during this tournament, but overall he played quite well.  He beat Djokovic for the second time in a row, and he looked like the better player in their match here.  A Federer-Kyrgios match in the next round would have been intriguing, but Kyrgios pulled out because of apparent food poisoning.  Watch out for Nick this year if he keeps his head together.

Federer dominates Nadal.  Although Nadal loves clay, the gritty hard court at Indian Wells is actually a good one for him.  That didn’t stop Roger from totally dominating this match, with two service breaks in each set.  This was one of Federer’s jaw-dropping performances that leave you wondering how anyone could be that talented at tennis.  If you’re interesting in seeing a replay of any match, this is the one to watch.