The BNP Paribas Open has been named the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year for the third consecutive season.  The honour is part of the 2016 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon. 

Linda Clark, ATP Vice President – Tournament Relations, Americas, presented tournament director Tommy Haas with the trophy on Saturday in an on-court ceremony following Fabio Fognini defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

“As a player, I can understand why this event has been named ‘Tournament of the Year’ on the ATP World Tour for the third consecutive year,” said Haas. “Now as a member of the Indian Wells team, I have even more respect for the countless hours of planning and dedication that the entire staff contributes to make the BNP Paribas Open one of the best sporting events in the world.”

The tournament received the distinction for the first time in 2014, following the debut of its state-of-the-art Stadium 2, additional practice courts and a new shade structure. Following the 2016 event, numerous improvements have been made to Stadium 1, including upgrading, expanding and adding concessions and suites for the 2017 tournament.

The 2017 BNP Paribas Open concludes on 19 March.

Philipp Kohlschreiber joined an elite club on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open, clinching his 400th tour-level match win to advance to the third round.

Kohlschreiber has experienced many significant moments throughout his 17-year professional career, with seven ATP World Tour titles and 22 victories over Top 10 players. He added another milestone to his growing résumé, becoming just the third German to cross the 400 wins threshold.

“It feels great, it means that I’m pretty old and have been on the tour for a long time,” Kohlschreiber joked. “I hope I get the chance to go for 500.”

German Match Wins Leaders (Open Era)

The German advanced when Alexandr Dolgopolov retired with a leg injury early in the second set. The Ukrainian was leading 7-6(3), 1-1.

“I won most of the 399 before this without a retirement. It was a strange situation, because I saw he wasn’t moving 100 per cent, but I wasn’t sure how bad it was. He has a big game and I was fighting back and going down a break in the first set. I maybe wasn’t playing my best tennis, but I was fighting.”

The 33-year-old Munich native made his ATP World Tour debut in 2002 and would claim his first match win in St. Poelten, Austria, a year later. His signature win came over then World No. 2 Rafael Nadal on home soil in Halle in 2012.

“They are all special, but the first win in Munich in 2004 stands out, playing in front of the home crowd and in front of family and friends, was especially something special of course.”

Kohlschriber will go for win No. 401 against either third seed Stan Wawrinka or Paolo Lorenzi on Monday in Indian Wells.

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• Second round action in the top half of the draw at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday features World No. 1 Andy Murray, No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka, No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 8 Dominic Thiem and No. 10 Gael Monfils. There are 11 other seeds on the order of play.

• In the first men’s match on Stadium 1, Tsonga brings a 4-0 FedEx ATP head-to-head record against Fabio Fognini. Tsonga has two wins on clay and hard courts against the Italian No. 2. Tsonga is one of three players (Dimitrov, Sock) with two ATP World Tour titles this season. He also leads the ATP World Tour with 17 match wins (17-3). Fognini is trying to earn his first Top 10 win since beating No. 7 Nadal at the 2015 US Open. 

• In the next men’s match on Stadium 1, Wawrinka takes a 2-0 head-to-head record against Italian No. 1 Paolo Lorenzi. Wawrinka won both meetings in 2013 in straight sets on clay and grass. Wawrinka is a two-time quarter-finalist (2008, 2011) in Indian Wells. The 35-year-old Lorenzi is looking to post his first career Top 10 win (0-17).

• In the evening session, Murray tries to remain unbeaten (4-0) against Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil. Murray, who reached the final in 2009 (l. to Nadal), is one of two former finalists in the top half of the draw along with No. 20 seed John Isner. Murray has captured 10 titles in 14 finals from the 16 tournaments that he has played since last May. Murray comes into Indian Wells with a 12-2 match record on the season after winning his 45^th career title in Dubai (d. Verdasco). Pospisil is 3-20 lifetime against Top 10 opponents and he has lost 11 in a row since beating No. 5 Berdych in Washington in 2014.

• On Stadium 2, Thiem opens the day’s action against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in a first-time meeting. In the next match on, Isner takes a 2-0 head-to-head record against lucky loser Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. In the next singles match, American wild card Bjorn Fratangelo plays No. 13 seed Tomas Berdych, who won the previous meeting in straight sets at the 2015 US Open. In the final match, No. 2 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan square off with the wild card team of Nick Kyrgios and Nenad Zimonjic.

• On Stadium 3, big-serving Ivo Karlovic, the No. 19 seed, plays Japanese lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine takes on No. 28 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who is seeking his 400^th career match win on the ATP World Tour. In the final match on, Monfils meets qualifier Darian King of Barbados.

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Watch your favourite players work on their games by taking in a live stream at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Rafael Nadal has traveled the world competing on the ATP World Tour, but the Spaniard says that one place has a special place in his heart.

Speaking to the Indian Wells faithful on a brisk Friday night at the BNP Paribas Open, following a first-round doubles victory with Bernard Tomic, Nadal conveyed his admiration for the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the year. Nestled in the sun-drenched Coachella Valley, it’s tennis in paradise.

“It’s no doubt that these are my two favorite weeks of the year,” said Nadal.

Nadal returns to his happy hunting ground in the California desert, having lifted the trophy on five occasions – three times in singles and twice in doubles. The 29 year old topped Novak Djokovic to prevail in 2007, followed by victories over Murray in 2009 and a resurgent Del Potro in 2013. Four years later, he is hoping to get off on the right foot against Guido Pella on Sunday.

“I am playing Pella in the first round and that’s all I can say now,” Nadal told the assembled media on Friday during his pre-tournament press conference. “If all things go well, we will have time to talk about the draw. I was a little bit sick for two days, so I couldn’t practise. I started to practise yesterday for the first time. Today, I practised again and I have doubles.

“It is obvious that when you get sick you lose a little bit of the power for a couple of days. So I hope to recover myself well and feel ready to compete at the highest level possible.”

Nadal opened his doubles quest on Friday, teaming with Tomic to defeat Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa 6-4, 7-6(7). A two-time champion with countryman Marc Lopez in 2010 and 2012, he is joining forces with the Australian for the first time.

“I play doubles for fun and to practise too,” Nadal added. “I was supposed to play with Bernard in Brisbane. That made sense, because it’s his house and for me it was something that I liked. But then I said to him that I could not play there. I said if we can change Brisbane for Indian Wells, will be great for me. That’s it.”

Nadal finds himself in the legendary bottom quarter of the draw, with an Australian Open final rematch against Roger Federer looming in the fourth round and a potential quarter-final clash against another longtime rival, Novak Djokovic. And that’s just to reach the semi-finals.

Coming off a run to the final at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, the fifth seed is taking it one match at a time. First up: a first encounter against Pella.

Doubles was the hot ticket on Friday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal all taking the court ahead of their singles campaigns.

Teaming up with Bernard Tomic, Nadal survived a tense second-set tie-break to secure a 6-4, 7-6(7) victory over Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa in the night session on Stadium 1. Nadal and Tomic, playing together for the first time, let slip three match points at 6/3 in the tie-break, but regrouped to convert their fourth opportunity after one hour and 33 minutes.

Nadal is a former doubles champion at the BNP Paribas Open, lifting the trophy in 2010 and 2012 with Marc Lopez, who was courtside to watch his friend on Friday evening.

Murray teamed up with fellow Brit Daniel Evans for a 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 victory over Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez. The Scot is looking for his first ATP World Tour doubles crown in almost six years, since winning the Tokyo crown with his older brother, Jamie Murray, in 2011.

Djokovic and Serbian countryman Viktor Troicki celebrated with a Bryans-esque chest-bump as they battled to a 2-6, 6-3, 10-7 victory over Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas. They could next face defending champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, should the French pair overcome John Isner and Jack Sock on Saturday.

A packed crowd watch Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka join forces, but the Bulgarian-Swiss duo fell in the first round to Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, 6-4, 3-6, 10-3.

German brothers Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber and Dominic Thiem 7-6(4), 6-4 for a place in the second round. The Zverevs won their first team title last month in Montpellier (d. Martin/Nestor) in the same week that Alexander won the singles crown.

In other first-round action, Roberto Bautista Agut and Fernando Verdasco defeated Tomas Berdych and Philipp Petzschner 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-3, while Steve Johnson and Vasek Pospisil overcame Marcin Matkowski and Alexander Peya 3-6, 6-4, 11-9.

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