Tennis-prose.com correspondent Michael Onello attended day one of the 2026 BNP Paribas Open and said it was the first time in ten years that he did not have to wait on any lines to see any matches. Crowds are down this year so far early first week.
Lindsay Davenport defended the decision to give Venus Williams another wildcard because “tournaments have a lot of wildcards” to use and the veteran still loves the game and competing and seeing what she can get out of her game. Williams dropped to 0-5 on the year losing in three sets to Diane Parry. Williams described the windy conditions yesterday as “impossible” to play in. She also complained during the match that the water was not cold enough and demanded colder water.
Rising star Cristina Bucsa has no sponsors, no social media, just her dad as coach and she reads metaphysics. She followed up her Merida title with a 1R win 64 60 over Vidmanova.
Roland Garros girls’ singles champion Lilli Tagger won her first WTA 1000 match.
Indian Wells doubles pairings…Djokovic/Tsitsipas… Sinner/Opelka… Medvedev/Tien… Khachanov/Rublev… Rinderknech/Vacherot… Korda/Auger-Aliassime.
Practice court conversation overheard between Sabalenka and Rublev… – Sabalenka: “Just get a little trim. Get rid of all that negativity. You know hair holds onto energy, right?” – Rublev: “I’m super positive, what are you talking about?”
Our correspondent was at Tsitispas vs Shapovalov and he heard and saw Apostoulos Tsitsipas coaching Stefanos from the other end and he was chattering non stop, “yelling bravo after Shapo errors.” Umpire Mo Lahyani “looked directly at him and gave a soft warning which was not obeyed.”
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