Indian Wells Pre-Qualies Started & It’s Free

Written by: Staff on 24th February 2014

Indian Wells Pre-Qualies Started & It's Free

epa03618539 General view from Stadium 2 during the Nikolay Davydenko (foreground) from Riussia and Juan Martin Del Potro (background) from Argentina match during the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 10 March 2013. EPA/MICHAEL NELSON |

BNP PARIBAS CHALLENGE BEGINS TODAY

Tournament Draw Features Largest Field in Event History.

The 2014 BNP Paribas Challenge, the pre-qualifying event for the Tournament, begins today and will run through Saturday, March 1, boasting the largest draw in the event’s history with more than 200 participants seeking wildcard berths into the BNP Paribas Open Qualifying tournament, held March 3-5 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Samantha Crawford and Nicole Gibbs highlight the American talent in the women’s draw. Crawford qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open Main Draw and also captured the Junior Girls singles title that year and Gibbs is a two-time NCAA Champion currently No. 196 in the WTA rankings.

Ksenia Pervak of Russia turned pro in 2007 and reached a career-high ranking of No. 39 in 2011 after winning her first and only WTA title in Tashkent and reaching the finals in Baku. She has finished in the WTA top 150 four times in the last five years.

Other notable women in the draw include 2013 US Open National Playoff Winner Mayo Hibi of Japan and WTA top 150 ranked player Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic.

The men’s side features 2012 BNP Paribas Challenge winner and former UCLA standout Dennis Novikov. Other noteworthy players include Daniel Kosakowski, who won the event in 2011 and has a career-high ATP World Tour ranking of 230, and Nicolas Meister, who currently stands at No. 366.

In 2013, Rik De Voest and Gabriela Dabrowski won the pre-qualifying tournament.

Matches will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 24 – Wednesday, February 26, and 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 27 – Friday, February 28. The women’s final will be on Saturday, March 1 at Noon followed by the men’s final. All matches will be played at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, are open to the public and free of charge.

For more information and to view the men’s and women’s Challenge draws, visit www.bnpparibasopen.com.

About the BNP Paribas Open

The BNP Paribas Open is the largest ATP World Tour and WTA combined two-week event in the world, and is held annually at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The site has undergone a significant expansion that includes a new permanent Stadium 2 with 8,000 seats and three restaurants, including world-renowned Nobu; four more practice courts, an additional 19,000 square foot shade structure, and more. The tournament offers more than $10 million in prize money, and is the only event to provide the Hawkeye line challenge system on all match courts, including qualifying rounds. In 2013, more than 380,000 people attended the event. Visit www.bnpparibasopen.com for more information, to purchase tickets and for live coverage starting March 3. Indian Wells Tennis Garden Box Office, 800-999-1585 or 760-200-8000, 78-200 Miles Avenue, Indian Wells, CA, 92210.

About BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) has a presence in nearly 80 countries with 190,000 employees, including 145,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its three core activities: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across Mediterranean basin countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network, Bank of the West, in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia-Pacific.

BNP Paribas and Tennis

2013 has seen BNP Paribas celebrate the 40th anniversary of its partnership with the French Open, Roland Garros. Since this first historical commitment, BNP Paribas has extended its partnership with tennis across the world and to all levels of the sport – both individual and team competitions, wheelchair tennis, local family clubs as well as the professional game; from those just learning the game to those competing in the top tournaments on the pro circuit. Building on this, BNP Paribas launched wearetennis.com; a website entirely dedicated to tennis news. It is a unique initiative which provides tennis fans with a constant flow of information on tennis events with coverage of all the ATP, WTA and ITF tournaments. Today BNP Paribas is the world number one sponsor of tennis: Official sponsor of Roland Garros, title sponsor of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, sponsor of 4 ATP Masters 1000 events (BNP Paribas Masters, Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, Internazionali BNL d’Italia – Rome, BNP Paribas Open – Indian Wells), title sponsor of the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, Partner of the Brussels Open with BNP Paribas Fortis, partner of the Bank of the West Classic – California, the Grand Prix Hassan II – Casablanca, the Grand Prix SARS Leila Meriem – Fès, the Open 13 – Marseille, the Moselle Open, the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, the AEGON Championships – London, the Open de Nice, the Open Sud de France, the BNP Paribas Showdown – New York, the BNP Paribas tennis classic – Hurlingham, and the BNP Paribas Zurich Open. Other partnerships BNP Paribas has formed over the years include with international wheelchair tennis (the BNP Paribas Open, the BNP Paribas World Team Cup) and the Junior and the university tennis (the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, the Master’U BNP Paribas, the BNP Paribas Cup, the BNP Paribas National Tennis Academy of Dublin, the BNP Paribas Junior Tennis Masters-Athens). BNP Paribas is currently working through partnerships with more than 20 local tennis federations and more than 550 amateur tournaments across the world and supports many charities which aim to educate children by teaching them to play tennis.

Topics: 10sballs, BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wta