Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic - live and not an umpire in sight

On Thursday March 13 I traveled the 51 miles from my home in Joshua Tree, CA to the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells.

Attending this event is always anticipated with the joy a child anticipates going to the circus. The analogy is apt. At the circus you have concurrent entertainment in three rings and assorted clowns parading around. At Pac Life you have concurrent matches on eight courts, a like number of practice sessions, and a few clowns walking about. So much to see; so little time.

My nature is not to stay in one place too long. This, plus my desire to see as many players as possible, means I walk a lot and I see a lot. I watch only a few games of a match, move to another, then stroll the practice courts. Then I repeat the circuit.

As has been the case in recent years the men's field is stronger than the women's. Every man ranked higher than No.50 is here. The 50th ranked woman here carries a 64 ranking. This means 14 women ranked above her are absent, notably Justine Henin, Anna Chakvetadze, Elena Dementieva, Tatiana Golovin, Nadia Petrova and Patty Schnyder. Two countries make up 23% of the 96 women here: Russia (13) and France (9).