Just got from Indian Wells tournament, let me tell you, that's one of the best experiences in my life! Literally, the place is humungous and gorgeous. It literally felt like a grand slam event but more relaxing. In addition, the fans are knowledgeable and respectful.
Here's my report:
Lleyton Hewitt: Even though he lost to Anderson, he still looked like he could play until he is 40 years old!
Caroline Wozniacki: Seriously, even though she is small than the other female players, she still big and very fit.
El Dude, you will be happy that I saw Grigor Dimitrov play a friendly match with Tomas Berdych. Dimitrov is lean and tall. If he could gain more muscle, he would really be a dangerous player. As for Berdych, he is tall and his calves are humongous. I wonder how much he can squat?
Then, I saw the 17-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer. At first, I did not recognized him because he was wearing a bright orange shoes kinda like Nadal's shoes. Federer's racket is big. Finally, Stefan Edberg hit with Federer. I gotta tell you Edberg is fit as ever and he did not even sweat for a one bit!
Then, I saw the Rosol-Murray match in Stadium 1. Murray was flat in the first set and Rosol took advantage of it. But once Murray settled down in the second set, it was a one way match. The point of the match was when Murray hit a passing shot to get 15-40 on Rosol's serve in the third set. If you saw that tremendous point in person, you will really appreciate how gifted these tennis players especially the Big Four. Murray was hustling and running very hard just to get to the ball back to Rosol. The great thing about that point was that it only took like 20 seconds. In T.V. 20 seconds is slow, but in live play, 20 seconds is just a blink of an eye.
Finally, the highlight of my trip today was seeing my favorite tennis player, Rafael Nadal practice hard for a whole hour. At first, we thought he was only gonna practice for 30 minutes just like Federer. But, he took an extra 30 minutes to get some rhythm before his night match. Let me tell you, when they say Nadal is serious when it comes to his practices, he really is intense and serious on the practice courts. The way he hit his forehand is like he wanted to kill the ball. I felt bad for his hitting partner because he could not handle Nadal's forehand. I can't blame him though. Seriously, his hitting partner was hitting the ball hard but Nadal's hit ball back 20 times faster. Furthermore, now I understand why it's hard to beat Nadal. His ball especially on his forehand often lands on the opponents feet or land right exactly on the line. It's very hard to predict on how will Nadal's ball will react. After an hour of hard practice session, Nadal signed some autographs and took pictures with his fans. Unfortunately, I did not get his autograph but I took a lot of pictures of him! By the way, he really is a genuine nice guy. While he was resting for a bit, he waved and smiled at us. Also, he signed a Venezuelan and Spanish flag which was cool.
The only negative thing about this experience is that Djokovic did not show up for his practice session. I came 15 minutes early so I could see him practice. But after waiting for an hour, he did not show up at all. A lot of fans were disappointed because they were also waiting for an hour just to see him practice for a little bit. Other than that, it was a great experience.
Now, I could see why this could be considered the 5th slam for some tennis fans. The facilities are great and the atmosphere was phenomenal. I will definitely come back next year and hopefully see more players practice on the outside courts.
