Indian Wells Pacific Life Open Betting

February 11, 2008

TENNIS: INDIAN WELLS PACIFIC LIFE OPEN
The Indian Wells Masters is an annual tennis tournament held in the city of Indian Wells, California. The official name of the event, for sponsorship reasons, is the Pacific Life Open.

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN WELLS PACIFIC LIFE OPEN
The Pacific Life Open started as an ATP fund-raising event in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Mission Hills Country Club in the Coachella Valley, California, in 1976. Charlie Pasarell, who had at one time, been the top-ranked U.S. player, was an ATP Board Member and Tennis Director at the La Quinta Hotel. He successfully promoted the Coachella Valley to the ATP Board, whilst concurrently encouraging the hotel’s owners to build facilities befitting such an event. His efforts led to La Quinta becoming the home of the event in 1981. The development of the tournament coincided with the completion of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2000, bringing the tournament a new name (Indian Wells Tennis Masters). The change to another superior venue brought about increased media attention for the event. This, in turn, led to greatly increased attendance and prize money, with the event acquiring international status. Originally the women’s tournament was held a week before the men’s event. In 1996, the championship became one of the few fully combined events on both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tours. The event has previously been titled the Newsweek Champions Cup, the Pilot Pen Classic and the Congoleum Classic. The women’s tournament was also previously called the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells (1989-1990), the Virginia Slims of Palm Springs (1991) and the Evert Cup (1992-1999) in honour of Chris Evert.

THE INDIAN WELLS PACIFIC LIFE OPEN TODAY
The event is part of the ATP Masters Series on the men’s tour and is a Tier 1 event on the women’s tour.
It has become one of the largest events on both tours. The tournament is played on hard courts and is the best-attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slam tournaments, with over 300,000 spectators attended during the two-week event. The ladies’ singles usually starts on a Wednesday with the final on the Saturday of the following week. The men’s singles’ event starts on a Friday, with the final on the Sunday of the following week. Both singles events include 96 players, with 32 “seeds” getting a bye into the second round. The Pacific Life Open for 2008 will be held from March 10th to 23rd. In both the men’s and ladies’ events, the fields are suitably competitive for an event of this nature. All four semi-finalists from the recent 2008 Australian Open have entered. In the men’s tournament, Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are likely to be leading lights. For the ladies, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic seem sure to make their presence felt. Additionally, it has recently been reported that former ladies’ World No.1 Lindsay Davenport ( a three-time Grand Slam winner) has also entered this year’s tournament.

BETTING ON THE INDIAN WELLS PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

Types of Bet Available

Outright Betting
Prices are offered, (though as of 4th February, none are available) by most online betting sites, for the men’s and ladies’ singles and doubles. However, the majority of betting centres on the singles events. The market for the men’s event will undoubtedly be dominated by reigning champion Rafael Nadal, along with Roger Federer, champion for the preceding three years. In the ladies event, following the withdrawal of Belgium’s Kim Clijsters, through injury, the market seems likely to centre on the above-named lady players. Each-way betting is available on both events, with ½ the odds a place 1, 2.

Individual Match Bets
Many online bookmakers with price up individual matches in the tournament. The top 32 players in each event receive a bye into the second round. This means that first round matches tend to be quite competitive, making bets on individual matches a viable proposition. Once the higher-ranked players enter the tournament, there are bound to be (theoretically, at least) some one-sided matches. There is little value to be found in backing the favourites in such matches, at ridiculously cramped odds. However, especially in the men’s event, with its three-set format, upsets have occurred.

“Handicap” Betting
For apparently one-sided matches, online bettors may offer prices on the match with the “underdog” receiving a certain number of games “start.” Bets are then settled on the total number of games won. The price will obviously be shorter, but gives fanciers of the lower-ranked player a chance of a financial interest, at a “sensible” price.

Correct Score Betting
Online betting sites offer prices on the correct set score in individual matches, e.g. Nadal to win 2-1, Hantuchova to win 2-0 etc. These may provide better value than the outright match prices, the downside being that they are more difficult to predict.

“In-running” Bets
Online bettors will offer a wide range of “in-running” bets on individual matches. These include:

Match Winner
Fluctuating prices throughout the match, dependent on the score at the time.

Predicting the winner of a particular set

Predicting the score in a particular set

Predicting the number of games in:
(i) a particular set
(ii) the whole match