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    Djokovic Is Included in Indian Wells Draw Despite Unclear Covid Vaccination Status

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    Novak Djokovic, one of the world’s most prominent sports stars to hold out against getting a coronavirus vaccination, was included in the field for this week’s Indian Wells tennis tournament in Southern California, even though there are doubts over whether he will be able to enter the United States and participate.Djokovic was deported from Australia in January after immigration officials there ruled that he was a danger to society because they said he could energize the country’s anti-vaccination movement. He was thus unable to defend his Australian Open title, which he has won a record nine times.Djokovic has expressed reluctance to be vaccinated against coronavirus, saying that he was not convinced by the science. He said the issue was more important to him than adding to the 20 Grand Slam tournaments he has won.Djokovic told Australian border officials in January that he was unvaccinated, and in recent interviews has given no indication that his status has changed.Djokovic’s name and picture appeared on a list of players in the main draw for the BNP Paribas Open, which starts on Wednesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Although not one of the sport’s four Grand Slams, the hardcourt event is considered one of the biggest tournaments in the world.Djokovic, the tournament’s second seed, has a bye in the first round, so he is not scheduled to play until Saturday.Under U.S. immigration law, people who are not citizens and also not immigrants must show proof of full vaccination as well as a negative coronavirus test to enter the country by air.Djokovic spent two years as the game’s No. 1 ranked player until February, when he slipped to No. 2.In his absence, Rafael Nadal won the Australian Open and moved one ahead of his rival as the men’s player with the most Grand Slam wins. Nadal also is listed among the players at Indian Wells, although Roger Federer, who has also won 20 Grand Slam titles, is not. More

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      Paula Badosa Outlasts Victoria Azarenka to Win Indian Wells

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      Badosa won her first top-tier title on Sunday with a hard-fought 7-6 (5), 2-6, 7-6 (2) victory over Azarenka in a final that required three hours and four minutes.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — In its usual March dates, the BNP Paribas Open has been a launching pad for major talent in recent years.Naomi Osaka won the title in 2018 and then won the U.S. Open by upsetting Serena Williams in the final. Bianca Andreescu won the title in 2019 and did the same.Time will tell on the 27th-ranked Paula Badosa, who won her first top-tier championship on Sunday with a 7-6 (5), 2-6, 7-6 (2) victory over Victoria Azarenka in a final that required three hours and four minutes of effort and resilience in temperatures approaching 90 degrees.Badosa’s unexpected run through a brutal draw was not the only big surprise in Indian Wells. Cameron Norrie, a British player seeded 21st, also won his first Masters 1000 title, defeating Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia on Sunday in the men’s final.At 23, Badosa is older than either Osaka or Andreescu were when they made their breakthroughs at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. But she was once a teen prodigy herself and is now doing justice to her talent. On Monday, she will break into the top 20 for the first time at No. 13.“I think the first thing that I’ve learned this week is that nothing is impossible,” Badosa said. “If you fight, if you work, after all these years, you can achieve anything. That’s the first message that I see that could happen. And to dream. Sometimes you have tough moments. In my case I have been through tough moments. I never stopped dreaming. That’s what kept me working hard and believing until the last moment.”Badosa was born in New York where her Spanish parents were living and working, but the family soon moved back to Spain where she began playing tennis.She was identified early as someone with the kind of drive and talent to become Spain’s next great women’s player after Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez and Garbiñe Muguruza.She played her first professional satellite tournament at age 14, won two rounds at the Miami Open as a wild-card entrant at age 17 in 2015 and won the French Open junior title later that year. But she struggled with the expectations and the tour, going through a full-blown depression that left her struggling to get out of bed, much less train for competition.Badosa sought professional help, and found a new coach who helped retool her game and rebuild her confidence, and in January 2019, she qualified for her first Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open.She has chosen to be open about her mental-health issues, recording a video in 2019 that recounted her journey. But her rise into the elite began in earnest after the five-month hiatus of the professional tours forced by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Badosa reached the fourth round of the French Open, which had been delayed from the spring until October, and after strong preparation in the off-season she was ready to do well at this year’s Australian Open only to end up, like Azarenka, in hard quarantine after the charter flight to Melbourne.Both players ended up losing in the first round, but Badosa has gone on to have a breakthrough season: winning her first WTA Tour title in Belgrade in May and then following that with a run to the quarterfinals at the French Open, the fourth round of Wimbledon and the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics.At 5-foot-11, she has physical presence and big power on her serve, forehand and two-handed backhand. But she is also a natural mover, capable of counterpunching from the corners and chasing down the drop shots that the crafty Ons Jabeur tried against her in the semifinals on Friday.Victoria Azarenka was two points away from victory but unforced errors cost her the opportunity.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAzarenka posed a very different challenge. While Jabeur relies on spin and abrupt changes of pace, Azarenka is a straight-line player at her most dangerous when she can take a full cut at a return or step into the court and find a sharp angle with her best shot: her two-handed backhand. She is also highly effective at the net, where she often thrived on Sunday.A former No. 1, Azarenka has not had her finest season in 2021. But she is at her most dangerous on hardcourts, and Indian Wells has long been one of her happiest hunting grounds.There are no major tournaments in Belarus, Azarenka’s home country. But this parched part of the United States is an area that also feels like home. After leaving her home city of Minsk to find better training opportunities, she lived in Arizona as a teenager and later bought a home in Manhattan Beach, Calif., in the Los Angeles area.She won the singles title in Indian Wells in 2012 and 2016, the year in which she looked ready to resume dominating the women’s game. Instead, she became pregnant with her son Leo and left the tour for nearly a year. After her return, she was unable to compete consistently and was unable to leave California at one stage because of a long-running custody battle with her former boyfriend Billy McKeague.But she has still hit some high notes: above all her run to the U.S. Open final last year. And she is still one of the purest ball strikers and best returners in the women’s game.“I was seeing you many times,” Badosa said to the 32-year-old Azarenka in the post-match ceremony on Sunday. “I remember saying to my coach that I hope one day I can play like her.”“Thank you for inspiring me so much,” Badosa added. “I wouldn’t be here without you.”Azarenka was close, very close, on Sunday to becoming the first three-time women’s singles champion in Indian Wells. After losing the marathon first set in one hour and 19 minutes, she roared quickly back to win the second set as Badosa struggled to produce the same consistency from the baseline.Paula Badosa won her second career title. She won her first earlier this year in Belgrade, Serbia.Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressAzarenka exuded positive energy throughout the match, pumping her fist and moving purposefully between points. Though Badosa jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the final set, Azarenka did not falter. She fought back to 2-2 and then broke the Spaniard’s serve at 4-4 for the chance to serve for the match.At 30-0, Azarenka was just two points from victory but after nearly three hours of chasing the title, she lost her way, making unforced errors on the next four points to lose her serve and allow Badosa back in the hunt at 5-5.She did not squander the opportunity, taking command of the ensuing tiebreaker by taking a quick 3-0 lead, cracking a forehand winner to extend the lead to 4-1 and then closing out the match on her first championship point with another forehand winner.It was quite a finishing touch on the biggest victory of Badosa’s career, and she immediately dropped her racket, fell to the court and began sobbing, her hands covering her face.“A dream come true,” she said as she thanked her support team and tournament director Tommy Haas after the victory.“I know it’s been very tough times, so I appreciate all you’ve done,” Badosa said to Haas.It has indeed been an unusual and challenging edition of this prestigious tournament, canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic and delayed until October this year. But though women’s stars like Ashleigh Barty, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams were missing and the crowds were significantly smaller than usual, the 2021 BNP Paribas Open did have a final worthy of the event’s hard-earned reputation.If all goes according to plan, no guarantee in the coronavirus era, Badosa will defend her biggest title in just five months time. The 2022 edition is scheduled to be played in its usual window from March 7 to 20. More

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      U.S. Open Stars Fall at Indian Wells, Which Struggles to Draw a Crowd

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      The tournament, the first major sporting event canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, was moved to October for its return, but attendance is down by half and atmosphere is lacking.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — With no teenagers and no Daniil Medvedev left in the draw, this tournament will definitely not be a repeat of the U.S. Open.Medvedev, so cool and pressure-proof on his way to his first Grand Slam title last month in New York, looked ready to keep rolling on Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open.He led Grigor Dimitrov by a set and two breaks of serve in the round of 16. But tennis remains an unpredictable game, and the top-seeded Medvedev proceeded to lose his way in the desert sunshine as Dimitrov, playing patiently and boldly at just the right times, reeled off wins in eight straight games and then held firm to finish off the upset, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.“Impossible until possible, I guess,” Dimitrov said in a television interview.But if this is not the U.S. Open, it is not truly the Indian Wells tournament, either. That event, usually held annually in March, has grown in size and stature under its free-spending owner, Larry Ellison, becoming the most popular and prestigious tour stop after the four Grand Slam tournaments and the year-end tour finals.In 2019, 475,000 spectators came to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden during the event’s nearly two-week run, filling up the stadium courts and the upscale restaurants that overlook them. In recent years, the tournament generated an estimated annual economic impact of over $400 million in the greater Palm Springs region.But in March 2020, it became the first major international sports event to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision, which was ultimately Ellison’s call, turned out to be the correct one. Though there were skeptics when the move was announced just ahead of the qualifying tournament, other leagues and events soon followed as the scope and threat of the pandemic became clearer.“We thought they were nuts at first for calling it off,” Krystal Meier, a longtime fan and tournament attendee from Long Beach, said in an interview last week. “How could anybody have known what was coming?”This year, the BNP Paribas Open was moved from March to October, and though the prize money is roughly the same as in 2019, the star power and atmosphere are not.The tournament was moved from March to October, and attendance is down from 2019, the last year it was played.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAccording to tournament officials, attendance is on track to be about half of what it was in 2019. The change in date is certainly a factor. Many seasonal residents have yet to arrive in the area, and regulars who made March attendance a tradition were clearly not ready to embrace October.The decision to require vaccination of all spectators may have limited the overall numbers while reassuring some fans. “When we saw everybody was going to be vaccinated, we definitely felt better about coming,” Meier said.But there is still underlying concern about attending mass events and traveling too far from home. More than 87 percent of the spectators in 2019 were from outside the Palm Springs area.Another reason for the smaller crowds is surely the changing of the guard in tennis. The tournament is missing the two biggest stars in the women’s game (Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka) and the three biggest stars in the men’s game (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic).Federer, 40, and Nadal, 35, are recovering from injuries, and they announced the end of their 2020 seasons in August. Djokovic, 34, is resting and recovering after losing to Medvedev in straight sets in last month’s U.S. Open final, a defeat that stopped him just short of becoming the first man to complete a Grand Slam in singles since Rod Laver in 1969.Dominic Thiem, who won the men’s title here in 2019, is also out with an injury. He, like the other high-profile absentees, still has a presence in Indian Wells. In a nod to the obvious, tournament organizers have put life-size images of all of them on a wall behind Stadium 2 featuring the words “We miss you.” It has become a magnet during the event, with fans posing for photographs next to the photographs.Posing next to flesh-and-blood players has been much trickier because of the pandemic restrictions, which have meant a ban on official autograph sessions. (Informal signings have still taken place.)None of the women’s singles quarterfinalists in New York reached the quarterfinals here, with the surprise Open champion Emma Raducanu losing in her opening match to the 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Emma Raducanu, the U.S. Open champion, lost in her opening-round match at Indian Wells.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockThe far more experienced Medvedev fared better with his bedeviling blend of offense and defense, and he fared very well against Dimitrov until he took a 4-1 lead in the second set.But Dimitrov, the Bulgarian who is seeded No. 23, was opportunistic enough to change the momentum. At 30, he has yet to reach the heights that have seemed his destiny, given his stylish, all-court game. But he remains a dangerous opponent, and after showing flashes of fine form at the San Diego Open the week before Indian Wells, he lifted his game on Wednesday as Medvedev’s dropped.“He definitely flipped the switch,” Medvedev said. “It’s not that I started missing everything and like really playing bad. I still maintained some level, if we can call it like this. In so many matches, it would be enough to finish the match.”Once in the rallies, Dimitrov almost exclusively sliced his single-handed backhand down the stretch and waited — and waited — to take big risks with his forehand. Most of them paid off in the final set, and he took a 5-1 lead as Medvedev expressed displeasure in rare fashion by breaking a racket between his first and second serves (he double faulted) and going on to lose his serve for the sixth time.“That shows how slow this court is, and the conditions are more like clay, I would say, which I don’t like,” Medvedev said.Dimitrov soon lost his serve, too, as he tried to finish off the upset at 5-1, but he did not falter at 5-3, holding at love and thrusting both arms into the air.Though the sky above him was typical Indian Wells — clear and azure — what was happening back on earth remained anything but business as usual. More

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      Pro Tennis Finds New Cities to Play In, but Will It Return?

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      The pandemic caused many tennis events to be canceled or rescheduled. It also created opportunities for U.S. cities to throw one together.SAN DIEGO — The small tennis stadium was packed and in full roar as Daniel Vallverdú watched Casper Ruud and Grigor Dimitrov trade blows and breaks of serve on Saturday.“Five weeks, we did it all in five weeks,” said Vallverdú, the managing director of the inaugural, and perhaps final, San Diego Open.Despite the planes that droned overhead, the new tournament did not have much runway: about a month to secure temporary stands and sponsors and then stage an ATP 250 event. These remain extraordinary times for sports and those who attempt to organize them.The coronavirus pandemic has created upheaval on the tennis tour, canceling tournaments like Wimbledon in 2020 and forcing many events to be rescheduled. But the situation has also generated unexpected opportunity for American cities that would normally have been unable to find a slot on a packed international calendar.Chicago, once a regular stop on the women’s tour, has staged two new WTA events since August. San Diego, a city with a rich tennis culture, made its debut on the ATP Tour.“It was one of those things where we were in the right place at the right time,” said Bill Kellogg, one of the San Diego Open’s organizers. “We happened to be in a spot where we could say yes when they asked if we could do it with the China circuit caving in. I know guys that had been trying to get ATP tournaments for years and years and had no luck whatsoever.”When 2021 tournaments in Asia were canceled because of the pandemic, the men’s tour had vacant space to fill ahead of the BNP Paribas Open tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., a prestigious 12-day event that had been moved from March to October because of the pandemic.Vallverdú, a former player who has coached top players like Andy Murray and Dimitrov, knew there might be an opportunity in nearby San Diego with its nearly perfect weather and no tour-level event.Most ATP tournaments hold “sanctions” that guarantee their spot on the tour and that can be sold, just as N.F.L. franchises can be sold. But the ATP Tour has been offering one-year licenses during the pandemic to make up for lost playing opportunities. Thirteen tournaments have operated on these one-year licenses in 2020 and 2021.Vallverdú contacted his friend Ryan Redondo, the new executive director at the Barnes Tennis Center, a public facility with 25 outdoor courts that is a hub for the junior game.Redondo, once an all-American tennis player at San Diego State, knew the power of big events firsthand. At age 5, when he attended a 1989 Davis Cup match between France and the United States in San Diego, the playful French star Henri Leconte brought Redondo onto the court for a hit when John McEnroe took a bathroom break.“Part of my strategic plan and vision was we should have every level of tournament possible here at the Barnes Center, from red ball events for 3-year-olds to ATP and WTA events,” Redondo said. “We need all of that to inspire the kids.”He spoke with two potential benefactors, Kellogg and Jack McGrory, who thought Redondo had to be talking about 2022, not 2021. But they quickly agreed to become the still-notional tournament’s co-sponsors.“We said yes in 24 hours, and we had no idea what we were getting into,” McGrory said. “It was much more complicated than we expected.”McGrory said they got the initial funding for the tournament with a $100,000 grant and $200,000 loan from the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation, of which Kellogg is president. McGrory said they were able to raise $850,000 in sponsorships and contributions and another $800,000 from tickets and concessions. The ATP contributed the prize money of more than $600,000.“We’re going to be able to pay off the loan and put some money back into the Barnes Center,” McGrory said.The tournament, with its modest stadium court expanded to 2,000 seats, was sold out for its last four days. Above all, there was a fine field with Murray, a former No. 1, and eight top-20 players: a lineup worthy of a higher-level event than an ATP 250. The proximity to Indian Wells was a big factor in the elite players’ participation, and the winner turned out to be the 10th-ranked Ruud, a Norwegian who has won five titles in his breakout season.But it remains uncertain, even unlikely, that Ruud will be able to defend his title in San Diego. A one-year license provides no guarantee that the tournament will return to the city. What it does provide is a chance to showcase a new venue.“I have a lot of titles to defend next year, and I know four of them will be played next year and for this one we will have to see,” Ruud said on Sunday as he cooled down on an exercise bike after his 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Cameron Norrie in the final. “It’s obviously tough. The ATP is hosting over 60 events a year and all over the planet, so it’s not easy to find a week to fit in. This year, San Diego was able to do this in five weeks, so I see no reason why they couldn’t do it again, and I hope they will do it again not just because I won but it was a great city and great weather. These are perfect conditions for us to play in. It’s not too hot, not too humid and great atmosphere.”San Diego has produced some fine tennis players. Maureen Connolly, who was known as Little Mo, dominated the women’s game in the early 1950s, achieving a Grand Slam by winning all four major singles titles in 1953. Karen Susman won the Wimbledon women’s singles title in 1962. Kelly Jones was ranked No. 1 in the world in men’s doubles in 1992. Recently, CoCo Vandeweghe broke into the women’s top 10 in 2018 and Taylor Fritz reached No. 24 in the ATP singles rankings last year, becoming the top-ranked American man. Brandon Nakashima, ranked 79th at age 20, is one of the most promising American men’s prospects.But there has never been a main ATP Tour event in San Diego until now, and there has been no tour-level event in San Diego County since the women’s tournament in Carlsbad moved to China in 2014.The United States, once the mainstay of the men’s and women’s tours, has steadily lost tournaments to Asia and Europe. In recent years, the Indian Wells event has been the only ATP event in California, and none of the biggest West Coast cities have had a regular men’s tour event.The decline of American tennis has played a role, particularly the decline of American men’s tennis, but the shift also reflects the more global nature of the sport and the new economic strength of Asia.The pandemic, however, has canceled most Asian events for the last two years, a particularly big blow to the women’s tour, which had moved its year-end championships and much of its late-season lineup to China. The Shanghai Open, one of the top events on the men’s tour, also was canceled in 2020 and 2021.It remains unclear what approach China will take going forward, just as it remains unclear whether the San Diego Open was a one-off or the first chapter of a long-running tennis story.But the tournament certainly got the ATP’s attention. Ross Hutchins, the ATP’s chief tour officer, was initially intending to travel straight to Indian Wells from Europe. Instead, after hearing about the buzz at the Barnes Center, he moved up his travel plans and came to San Diego to observe and meet with the tournament’s team.“It’s a huge credit to them and the tournament how they not only embraced the concept but how they delivered,” Hutchins said Sunday. “And to do it in five weeks and to have the outcome they delivered is phenomenal.”Potential options for San Diego include buying another tournament’s sanction, persuading the ATP to break longstanding policy and create a new sanction, or negotiating another one-year license.Nothing is guaranteed, but McGrory sounded confident at Sunday’s awards ceremony as he turned to the finalists.“This is not going to be their last time here,” he said. More

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      Indian Wells Tennis Tournament Will Return This Year

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      The BNP Paribas Open, one of the sport’s most prestigious events, is to be staged in October, about seven months later than usual. The 2020 version was canceled because of the pandemic.The BNP Paribas Open, which was the first major American sports event to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, announced its comeback on Thursday.The prestigious tennis tournament, staged annually in Indian Wells, Calif., was not held in 2020 and was postponed this year from its regular dates in March.But after extensive negotiations with professional tennis’s numerous stakeholders, the event will be held in October. The precise dates have not been determined because the men’s and women’s tours are not set to finalize their late-season calendars until June. But Tommy Haas, a former player who directs the tournament, said the BNP Paribas Open would be staged with full prize money. The figures for this year aren’t set, but the 2020 prize money was supposed to be $1.36 million for each singles champion.Many tennis events have reduced prize money during the pandemic because of the loss of ticket and sponsorship revenue. The Miami Open, which was held in March after being canceled in 2020, slashed its compensation. Singles champions earned $1.35 million in 2019 but just $300,000 in 2021. The drastic cuts prompted complaints from John Isner, the 2018 men’s winner, and other players about the transparency of the decision-making process.But Haas said the BNP Paribas Open was committed to maintaining prize money at its customary levels.“I think that’s something the players are going to be really, really happy about,” Haas said in a videoconference call on Thursday. “That’s how it should be. They’ve gone through obviously some hard times. Their schedule has been sort of upside down with travel restrictions and trying to be in one bubble after another. I’m hoping that things will be a little easier come October playing for the prize money that we think they deserve.”The BNP Paribas Open, owned by the American billionaire Larry Ellison, is particularly popular with players because of its desert location, extensive facilities and relaxed atmosphere. It has become the most significant tennis event outside the four Grand Slam tournaments and the season-ending championships for the ATP and the WTA.“As a German-American citizen, I’m going to call it my own little Oktoberfest this year, which is going to be great, especially since Munich already had to cancel,” said Haas, referring to the annual German festival that will not be staged this year.The 2020 BNP Paribas Open was canceled just ahead of the qualifying tournament in March after a coronavirus case was detected in the area and Riverside County, Calif., public health officials declared a state of emergency. Many players, including the Spanish star Rafael Nadal, were already on site. The decision came so swiftly that many players and officials found out through social media.“As soon as we canceled, we went to work the next day to see how we were going to bring this back,” said Philippe Dore, the tournament’s media and marketing director. “I think we’re on our Version 25 of budgets and different scenarios.”More than 450,000 spectators attended the event in 2019, and Haas said he hoped to have a large number of fans again in October. California has been loosening pandemic-related restrictions in certain counties and is aiming to fully reopen its economy next month. Tickets for the BNP Paribas Open are tentatively scheduled to go on sale June 21.“We’re going to follow all the guidelines,” Haas said. “Safety is obviously the highest concern. It comes first, and we want to make sure everyone is very, very comfortable.” More