Heating Up In The Desert: Tennis Insights

(March 3rd - March 9th Recap)

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Courtside Tennis & Emmanuel Okosun
March 10, 2024

It’s showtime in Indian Wells!

The entire week was stacked on and off the courts with a lot of drama and storylines to catch up with but here’s everything put together in a 5-minute read for you.

New Video

We uploaded our special recap of the entire week covering the 5 tournaments from Dubai, Acapulco, Santiago, San Diego, and Austin. In case you missed our coverage, check it out here. Also, you can expect this week’s recap to be out by Monday.

What Happened Last Week

Indian Wells

After five years away from Indian Wells, Novak Djokovic, who owns the joint-record of five BNP Paribas Open titles, made his return and he marked it with a winning start against Aleksandar Vukic. After dropping a set in his opening match, the top-seeded Serbian will be looking to improve on his performance as he chases a record-extending 41st Masters crown and also move clear of his fellow five-time champion Roger Federer.

Meanwhile, 4th seed and last year’s finalist, Daniil Medvedev continues to chase his first title of the year while Carlos Alcaraz will be looking to defend his title. All of the Top 10 members with the exception of Hubert Hurkacz won their opening matches. Rafael Nadal pulled out of the tournament earlier in the week.

Defending champion Elena Rybakina pulled out of the tournament due to gastrointestinal issues. Meanwhile, only 4 of the Top 10 players remain in the tournament with the world #5 Jessica Pegula, #6 Ons Jabeur, #7 Qinwen Zheng, #8 Markéta Vondroušová, #9 Jeļena Ostapenko, all suffering early round losses.

The round-of-32 games are currently underway, so you can expect a complete review of the tournament in our next newsletter.

Ranking Updates

With the tournament still underway, we have to resort to live ranking. With Alcaraz needing to defend 1,000 points, Jannik Sinner is number 2 the live ranking and has the opportunity to leapfrog the Spaniard to a new career high by the end of the tournament.

Watch Out For This Player

 Matteo Arnaldi

The 23-year-old Italian hasn’t quite made a big splash yet, although he did reach the 4th round of the US Open in 2023 and has broken into the Top 40, we believe that Arnaldi’s ceiling could be inside the Top 15 or even higher. With a game stylistically similar to Carlos Alcaraz - great athleticism, movement, and work rate, big forehand, good net play, volleys, and an all-court game, we expect the 23-year-old to break more grounds in the coming months. Albeit, he’ll be looking to improve on his serves.

Off The Court

Simona Halep Set For Return

Halep received a wildcard for the Miami Open following the reduction of her ban from 4 years to 9 months (which she has already served), which means that we could see her on the court in as little as two weeks’ time.

Federer Meets Curry

Roger Federer paid Steph Curry, head coach Steve Kerr, and the Golden State Warriors a visit on Saturday when he met the team at training before watching its NBA match against San Antonio Spurs.

Break Point Cancelled

The show has been cancelled after just two seasons following poor ratings and reviews, and concerns over access to players. The tennis series failed to match the success of 'Drive To Survive.'

Trivia Of The Week

  • Did you know that before Rafael Nadal, 1995 Roland Garros Champion and former World #1 Thomas Muster was known as the King of Clay. The picture below shows how many clay titles he won in the 90s. Out of Muster’s 44 ATP career titles, 40 of them came on clay. Muster never won a single match in Wimbledon - The epitome of a clay court specialist.

  • Did you also know that there have been five first-time champions in the past five editions of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells?

    - Juan Martin del Potro (2018)

    - Dominic Thiem (2019)

    - Cameron Norrie (2021)

    - Taylor Fritz (2022)

    - Carlos Alcaraz (2023)

    Prior to that, the 'Big 3' of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic dominated in Indian Wells, winning 13 of the 14 titles between 2004 and 2017.

Highlights Of The Week

  1. No Way Past Chris O'Connell

  1. Dimitrov’s Unbelievable Reflexes

  1. Monfils’ Magic

Until next time, keep swinging!

For The Love of Tennis