Bill Simons
Today’s opening day lineup at Indian Wells didn’t have many of the biggest names of our era. Federer, Nadal and Serena have all vanished. We imagine that the suspended world No. 1, Jannik Sinner, is sipping a cool margarita on a Greek beach, or maybe chilling in the Seychelles.
Other big names, like Djokovic, Alcaraz, Kyrgios and Coco, are living the good life here in the desert before they lace up their sneakers for the battle. Today Indian Wells featured the best name in all of tennis, Walnut Creek’s Katie Volynets, No. 65, as well as Ann Li, who has the shortest name in the game since Li Na.
The line-up included the brightest of names – Lulu Sun – and a mysterious fellow who some claim has a dark past: Thiago Seyboth Wild has been associated with daunting domestic violence charges and links to extremism.
There’s another player who was in the draw who’s linked to violence: two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, who, after overcoming a wretched 2016 attack during a home invasion in the Czech Republic, is coming back after a far happier turn of events. She gave birth to a son last July, but she lost in short order.
Today it was hard to miss tennis’ tallest man, who has a name we know well: Reilly Opelka, but he fell too.
The draw featured an Aussie with two first names, Jordan Thompson, and many a player with three names, like Roberto Bautista Agut and Irina-Camelia Begu. A handful of University of Texas zealots on site were hoping their gal, Peyton Stearns, would transform Indian Wells into Peyton’s place. And that’s maybe why tourney organizers were happy to have a sheriff on hand, that would be Egyptian (by way of Pepperdine) Mayar Sherif.
Today also featured a tennis royal, queen Victoria Azarenka, who’s won twice in the desert. At 35, after 21 years on the circuit, the 2012 and 2016 champ is still a fierce competitor with one of the better grunts in the history of the game. Today she beat American Clervie Ngounoue, 7-5, 6-4.
Of course, the biggest name in the draw today was four-time Slam winner Naomi Osaka, who lost to Camilla Osorio. [See below.] And, by the way, fans of Nishesh Basavareddy were hoping his first-round foe wouldn’t say boo, but Bu Yunchaokete downed the Cardinal product 7-5, 6-4.
OSAKA FALLS: When she returned to the circuit after giving birth, Naomi Osaka’s outlook was bright. And tonight in her canary yellow dress, the great champion was also bright. But clearly, it’s just not easy to come back from childbirth.
In her five years of play after giving birth, Serena didn’t win a Slam. After Naomi had her daughter Shai in 2023, her life has been filled with drama and struggle. She broke up with her longtime partner Cordae. The LA fire came precariously close to her Hollywood Hills estate. She should have scored an epic upset win over Iga Swiatek at the French Open, but she faltered badly. She parted with her longtime coach, Wim Fessete and has been working with Patrick Mouratoglou.
At the US Open, her outfit, with its huge bows, was stunning. But her play wasn’t. And tonight in her opening round match she was uninspired.
Since returning to the tour she hasn’t won a title or gotten beyond the third round of a Slam. Tonight, for the first time in history, a Colombian beat a former No. 1. Camilla Osoria. The No. 56 player in the world used wicked backhand slices, considerable high-bouncing blasts and subtle drop shots to fluster the 2018 Indian Wells champion and four-time Slam winner.
Throughout the match, Osaka was out of sorts, hitting 30-plus errors. Jason Goodall quipped, “It’s the gift that keeps on giving – her shots are not even close to the purple [of the court.].”
In just 81 minutes, Osaria won 6-4 6-4 and did a little jig.
But Indian Wells lost its most appealing WTA player not named Coco. Osaka fans again asked a big question: Can the thoughtful, charismatic star somehow come back? When she first won Indian Wells seven years ago, Naomi seemed so whimsical. Tonight she seemed a bit lost.
Photo by Mike Kheir
FAREWELL FRED STOLLE: The great icons of Australian tennis are falling. In December, Neale Fraser died. Today, Fred Stolle passed, at 86. The wise, humorous Aussie, who lived in Aventura, Florida and whose son Sandon played on the circuit, won both the French and US titles and reached the Wimbledon final three times.
Born in Homsby, Australia, near Sydney, Stolle coached the considerable Vitas Gerulaitis and was a longtime tennis announcer on ESPN. His broadcast partner Cliff Drysdale said Fred was “expansive. Street smart. Honest. Loyal. Our king.”
NICK IN A PICKLE: At the twenty-first Desert Smash fundraiser, Nick Kyrgios lost to the world’s No. 1 pickleball player, Federico Staksrud, 11-4.
MIRRA LOOKS INTO THE MIRROR: Sometimes in press conferences you just have to work it. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again” comes to mind.
In Mirra Andreeva’s press conference, we asked the 17-year-old, who just broke into the Top Ten, what her best quality as a player is. She resisted, saying, “If I have an answer, I’m not going to tell you, because what if other players are watching and I say I’m super good at moving on the court, then they’re going to play in the middle and not going to move me…[So] I’m going keep that to myself.”
But then we smiled and told Mirra, “Come on, no one pays any attention to the media.”
She smiled too, and then offered one of the better scouting reports we’ve heard from a teen. “Well, I’m an okay player from the baseline. I’m trying to improve my volleys by playing a lot of doubles. I’m starting to feel a bit more confident going to net while playing singles. I try to force myself to come forward and to finish shots at the net.
“I’ve been working on serving and being a little bit more aggressive, and, also, trying to defend better. So that’s it.” BTW, Andy Roddick said the Russian would become No. 1.
LIKE A ROLLING JAGGER: The skies over Indian Wells became stormy. So the tourney blasted the Rolling Stones raucous anthem, “Hey, You, Get Off of My Cloud.” In turn, this brought to mind Mick Jagger’s fun-loving appearance at the recent Oscars. He was there, he said, because Bob Dylan told the Academy bosses, “It ain’t me, babe.”
This was great timing for us because last week we asked the Tennis Channel’s Lindsay Davenport what inspired her and her husband to name their son Jagger. She replied, “The name wasn’t after Mick Jagger. It was just a name we liked…It’s a great name. He’s a pretty quiet, calm kid.”
Lindsay added that if their first child had been a girl, “she would have been called Marley, but not after Bob, either.”
Then, when she and her husband were about to have a second child, they looked at each other and said, “We’re not cool enough to have children named Jagger and Marley.” So her daughter is Lauren Andrus Davenport Leach.
Finally, let’s talk about Bob Dylan, who in 1964 held a concert at Forest Hills, the old site of the US Open. Plus, in 1969, Dylan played tennis with George Harrison on the Isle of Wight.
We once suggested that the rowdy, in-your-face rebel Dylan laid the groundwork for the over-the-top rants that would later shake tennis. Dylan’s “I Ain’t Gonna work on Maggie’s Farm No More” turned into McEnroe’s “You can not be serious!” Granted, these days, Dylan’s Malibu mansion doesn’t have a court – but the estate next door does. The only time Dylan actually mused on tennis was in his whimsical ditty, “I Shall Be Free No. 10.” There, almost chuckling, he recalls how he “sat with my high-heeled sneakers on/Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun/I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist/And my wig-hat was falling in my face/But they wouldn’t let me on the tennis court.”
Dylan’s line about his wig-hat falling on his face predates a hilariously similar fiasco eleven years later, when Andre Agassi’s lion-mane wig all but disintegrated the night before his 1990 French Open final.
BTW: Tracy Austin’s son, whose name is Dylan, played on the USC men’s practice squad.
OF TENNIS, BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL: Iga Swiatek told Inside Tennis about going to a Golden State Warriors game last week. She loved watching and getting an enthusiastic reception from the crowd. Iga, who is always expected to go deep into tournaments, said she admires the way Steph Curry handles the pressure of having to make three-pointers, and added that she was impressed by how the NBA’s tall players work on their quickness. She noted that she hasn’t seen any football.
This prompted us to approach our friend Marc Ein, who went from being the dynamic owner of World Team Tennis’ Washington Kastles to becoming a USTA Board member, and recently a part owner of the Washington Commanders, which, in just one season, were transformed from a wretched team to a great one.
So we asked him what the difference was between football and tennis. He first chuckled, replying, “The first thing I thought of was everything.” Then he added, “In football, you have owners who all think about the greater good.”
THE BOYER BOUNCE: Not only did Altadena’s Tristan Boyer win a round at the Australian Open and then come home to host a local event for fire relief, today he came back to beat Australian Aleksandar Vukic, No. 64 in the world, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4). Tristan, ranked No 117, will play No. 10 seed Tommy Paul next.
GO FIGURE: You might think Roman Saffiullin was Italian. But the 27-year-old, who beat Reilly Opelka in straight sets, is Russian.
