Two fun days at the Indian Wells Open in Palm Springs

Bernie rented a magnificent home in Palm Springs in which we celebrated his 60th birthday; I met Bernie in 1988 with most of us in this photo knowing each other about 30 years with so many amazing memories along the way!

Martina is interviewing Cam Norrie after he destroyed Diego Schwartzman; Norrie (born in South African, grew up in NZ, went to college in the US at TCU, and lives in and plays for the UK) won the tournament to reach his career high ranking of #13

Leylah Fernandez won the junior title in 2019 at Roland Garros and stunned the tennis world with her run to the 2021 US Open finals; standing only 5 ft 6 in, her serve here was better than I remember from the US Open and she has great court speed

I still remember watching Andy Murray vomit on court twice during a match at the 2005 US Open; he went on to be ranked #1 for 41 weeks, win the US Open, win the gold medal at the London Olympics and end the British drought by winning Wimbledon twice

I remember watching Jelena Ostapenko win the 2017 French Open and just being amazed at her play since she wasn't missing anything; since being #5 in the world in 2018, the Latvian player has struggled but we saw her defeat Iga Swiatek

We attended on Tuesday and Thursday of the second week so many players had already been eliminated such as Medvedev, Rublev and Auger-Aliassime as well as Pliskova, Andreescu, Sakkari, Krejcikova, Gauff, Kvitova and Raducanu in the upset-filled tournament

We saw Anett Kontaveit lose to good friend Ons Jabeur but after Indian Wells Kontaveit won her next two tournaments to reach a career high #8 and qualify for the year end championships in Guadalajara (edging Jabeur for the last slot)

Grigor Dimitrov has been ranked as high as 3 in the world but has never made it to a Grand Slam final; we saw him defeat #8 seed Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 in the third in a well-played match

Bernie and Chuck hired one of the best chefs in the area to prepare a delicious dinner to celebrate Bernie's 60th birthday; in a normal year she would be working with the family of a top tennis player during Indian Wells like Federer or Djokovic

Bob was excited to watch 5 ft 7 in Diego Schwartzman but he won only 2 games against eventual champion Cam Norrie; Schwartzman, one of the few Jewish players on tour, excels on clay and has been ranked as high as #8 in the world

Ons Jabeur plays a flashy but at times undisciplined style reaching #7 in the world in 2021 becoming the highest-ranked Arab tennis player in history; she won the French Open junior title in 2011 after finishing runner-up the year before

Hubert Hurkacz won his first title at the 2019 Winston-Salem Open and then won his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the 2021 Miami Open; standing 6 ft 5 in, his serve can be 150+mph which helped take him to the semis at Wimbledon 2021

Shelby Rogers came back from down in the third set to defeat #1 Ash Barty at the US Open (she then lost to eventual champion Emma Raducanu); we saw Rogers upset Leylah Fernandez 7-6 in the third set in perhaps the best match we saw

Alexander Zverev has been ranked #3 in the world but hasn't played well in the majors; he did win gold at the delayed 2020 Olympics and gave a solid performance here when we saw him defeat Andy Murray (he then lost to Taylor Fritz)

At 20 years old, Iga Swiatek is the youngest player ranked in the top 10; Swiatek won the Wimbledon junior crown in 2018 and became the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam when she conquered Roland Garros in 2020

To get a red sky, you need aerosols and natural aerosols come from forest fires and mineral dust kicked up by sandstorms both of which affected the Palm Springs area for our visit; Bob was up early to capture this gorgeous sunrise