Indian Wells in the fall - where are the fans?
Tennis is good at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. However, many seats in the stands remain unoccupied.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Oct 16, 2021, 03:37 pm
One should not forget that California, according to information from hopefully reliable sources on the Internet, covers a larger area than Germany and Austria combined. So if you shouldn't make any comparisons between the popularity of the fans in Hamburg and that in Graz in this country (although there is definitely a draw when it comes to football), then it is all the more difficult in California.
Meanwhile: While the baseball stadium in San Francisco was filled to the last seat on Thursday for the decisive fifth game of the American League Divisional Series between the Giants and their arch-rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, there were still many in Indian Wells Options for last-minute travelers. As on all other days. There are great games to be seen - such as the two appearances of Grigor Dimitrov against Daniil Medvedev and Hubert Hurkacz .
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Djokovic, Federer, Nadal are missing
What could be the reason? First of all on the unfamiliar date. Normally, the short hard court spring in the USA opens at Tennis Paradise, followed by the tournament in Miami. The dates are learned, more potential tennis fans present in Indian Wells than they do right now. Cause number two could be the dilemma of so many autumn tournaments: After the US Open, the air is out for a few weeks for the first time, with fans and players. The Asia tour is considered a chore by most of the players.
And then you shouldn't forget that Indian Wells has a vaccination mandate these days. Well, that was also the case at the US Open, but there the immediate catchment area is much more densely populated than that in Indian Wells. Last but not least: If the US-Americans haven't cracked anything among the men for years (nobody could have guessed the success of Taylor Fritz), otherwise at least Novak Djokovic , Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were able to guide the masses into the stands. None of the Big Three is at the start this year, Federer and Nadal have doubts whether they will even pay their respects to tournament director Tommy Haas again.
The acid test will probably follow next March. Then the conditions are almost the same as for the last regular event in 2019, with the exception of the COVID restrictions. And maybe then either Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev or Stefanos Tsitsipas have already achieved a (further) Grand Slam victory. And established itself even more clearly than the legitimate successors of the Big Three.