In 1974, the inaugural edition of one of the most famous tennis tournaments in the world took place. The competition was held at the Margaret Court Racquet Club Ranch in Tucson, one of the largest tennis campuses in the western United States. The club was then named after the legendary tennis player Margaret COURT, who was contracted to teach and train club members at the ranch for six weeks a year. The facility had more than 30 courts, and the main court could accommodate 9,000 spectators, who remembered the event for its fantastic views of the desert and mountains. The tournament's first champion was John NEWCOMBE.

In 1976, the tournament moved from Arizona to California. Mission Hills Country Club at Rancho Mirage was a unique resort in the California desert, offering players three types of surfaces: traditional hard courts, clay courts, and grass courts, which were rare in this region. It was here, in 1977, that Martina NAVRATILOVA became the club's first resident teaching pro. For the Czech tennis player who had defected from a communist country and was beginning her illustrious career, an official position at the famous club became an important source of professional and financial support in the United States, even before she became an American citizen in 1981.

A devastating flood in 1980, which caused financial losses, so frightened ATP officials that they decided to move the tournament from California to Florida. This transfer was stopped by one of the event directors and tennis legend Charlie PASARELL. He convinced tennis management to wait and attracted investors to build five additional courts and a completely new stadium with a capacity of 7,500 seats on the La Quinta Resort property in just 10 weeks. Thus, the tournament remained in the Coachella Valley, and visitors of the courts located at the foot of the beautiful Santa Rosa Mountains could observe fantastically desert landscapes.

The popularity of the tournament grew rapidly, and it soon became clear that La Quinta Resort's capacity was at its limit, hindering the tournament's further development. And again, Charlie Pasarell secured investment for the construction of a completely new hotel and tennis complex, Hyatt Grand Champions in Indian Wells (now Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort), with 12 courts of different surfaces (hard, grass, and clay). The Central court was built in the shape of an octagon, the first time in the history of tennis architecture. This innovation improved spectators' views, increasing the total seating capacity to 10,000. In 1989, the debut edition of the competition for women within the Virginia Slims tour took place. At that time, the women's tournament was a week ahead of the men's and had a Tier III category. The winner was the Bulgarian tennis player Manuela MALEEVA. Since 1996, the ATP and WTA competitions have been combined into one large two-week event.

For the tournament in California, the start of the new millennium coincided with the move to the new Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The massive tennis complex in the desert was built in 2000 as the new home for the tournament. The complex housed 20 courts, including Stadium 1, which held 16,100 spectators. In 2009, billionaire and Oracle founder Larry Ellison bought the tournament and the complex. He invested hundreds of millions in transforming the venue into one of the best sporting venues in the world, and the tournament itself gained unofficial status as the fifth Grand Slam. The complex now has 29 tennis courts: Stadium 1 and Stadium 2, plus 27 courts for matches, warm-ups, and training.

Rainfall in the Coachella Valley, California, is rare, with about 20 rainy days a year, so the arena is built completely open and does not have a retractable roof. However, the open structure of Stadium 1 makes the game dependent on gusts of desert wind, to which players have to adjust as they go. Due to the large temperature differences, the court's characteristics differ during the day and at night. During the day, the air temperature in March can exceed +30°C. The air inside the ball heats up, and the pressure increases, which is why it bounces abnormally high. At night, the desert cools rapidly, and the temperature drops to +10°, so in the evening sessions, the air becomes dense, and the game slows significantly. To compensate for these differences, the organizers use a hard surface Plexipave, which, combined with a high "desert" bounce, makes Stadium 1 the slowest hard court in the world.

Stadium 1 Seating Map at Indian Wells Tennis Garden

The arena was built in a record 10 months and officially opened in 2014. It is the world's first tennis stadium to integrate a permanent premium restaurant with panoramic windows that look directly onto the court. It is the famous Nobu Indian Wells, a Japanese restaurant. The court surface has a special shade of Pro Purple. This color is the opposite of the ball's yellow and provides perfect visibility for players, spectators and TV broadcasts. Since the stadium has no roof, during the daytime session, most of the stands are in direct sunlight, so the most comfortable seats in terms of shade are the southern and western sides of the stadium. The seats there are shaded first by the canopy from the press building and restaurants. The total number of seats in Stadium 2 is 8,000.

Stadium 2 Seating Map at Indian Wells Tennis Garden