Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com
In some ways, it's been the ATP version of the Wheel of Fortune. Indian Wells, the prestigious Masters Series event that ends the long and not entirely compelling six-week stretch that follows the Australian Open, has a rich history as a career-launching event.
Last year, it was Novak Djokovic. The Serbian Sensation beat two very solid players, David Ferrer and Andy Murray, to earn a place in the final, opposite Rafael Nadal. Although Djokovic lost the match, he bounced back to win the title in Miami two weeks later (the backside of the U.S. hard-court Masters Double) to earn his first Masters title and cement his place in the upper echelon.
I don't know if it's because a few weeks of treading water in tennis backwaters like Zagreb and Boca Raton dull the top players' senses and leave them more vulnerable to upset, or because the balls tend to zip around more energetically in the thin desert air. Whatever the reasons, Indian Wells has frequently been a champions' springboard.
Take 1988: A young Angelino by name of Pete Sampras rolled into the desert to play the qualifying, accompanied by his brother Gus. The two of them started out in a cheap motel, but when Sampras qualified for the main draw, he became eligible for official tournament housing at the Hyatt Grand Champions. "Gus and I couldn't believe it when we went to our room," Sampras recently told me. "It was like we'd died and gone to heaven."
Over the ensuing days, Sampras, who was just 17 at the time, took the measure of two fine players: perennial top-10 performer Eliot Teltscher and Ramesh Krishnan. Although Sampras lost in the third round to Emilio Sanchez, the tournament was the tipping point that led Sampras to turn pro.
Another major desert surprise occurred in 1998, and in two parts, no less. Jan-Michael Gambill, a young American player from Spokane who banged big groundstrokes with two hands on either side, broke through to the semis. And while Gambill never did become a Grand Slam contender, the man he lost to in the penultimate round was another relative newcomer, Marcelo Rios. Bingo. He not only won the event, he also won Miami and ended up earning the world No. 1 ranking.
The following year, 1999, was almost as wacky, even though the main character was not exactly unknown. Hard-serving Aussie Mark Philippoussis had reached the 1998 U.S. Open final, but he was ranked No. 16 when he arrived in the desert. He promptly won Indian Wells, which propelled him to his highest-ever singles ranking. No. 8. Philippoussis is often said to be the best active player never to have won a Grand Slam title (he eventually played a Wimbledon final as well), and Indian Wells remains his biggest title.
If I had to pick an obscure player who could create a sensation at Indian Wells, I'd go with 19-year old Marin Cilic. He's going up against another prodigy, Japan's Kei Nishikori, late today.
Peter Bodo
