As we all know, the ATP Masters are a series of ATP World Tour tournaments, which include nine Masters tournaments, namely Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome, Montreal, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris.
The last leg of the annual season, the Paris Masters, has always been regarded as the masters with the easiest selection of new champions due to the more awkward timing (near the end of the season).
What impressed fans the most was of course the 2017 victory of American player Sok against Serbian player Krajinovic, which was also the heaviest men's singles title in his career so far.
Russian player Khachanov also topped the tournament in the 2018 season, and the Paris Masters is also the highest level of his current career title.
However, with native American players beating Nadal to win the title in Indian Wells, the Indian Wells Masters seem to have replaced the Paris Masters as the event that gave birth to the new Masters.
Let's take a brief look back at who has climbed to the top here in the past few seasons!
2018: Del Potro
Del Potro announced his retirement just last month, and of the 22 singles titles of his career, the highest-ranking of all but the only Grand Slam at the 2009 U.S. Open was won by Indian Wells in 2018.
He reached the final and beat Federer to win the first Masters of his career, the last time his master brother reached the top of the ATP Tour.
2019: Tim
Since retiring from the game in Mallorca last June due to a right wrist injury, Austrian player Tim has been hanging up the exemption card, announcing early that he plans to return in the clay season after announcing his withdrawal from this year's Sunshine doubles.
Tim's first Masters title, known for his clay masters, came from hard courts, reaching the final in Indian Wells in the 2019 season and eventually reversing Federer to win the title.
2021: Nori
Affected by the covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 IW tournament was not held, and the 2021 championship belonged to British player Nori, who won the final victory over Bashirashvili to become the first British player in history to win the title in Indian Wells.
This is, without a doubt, the most important men's singles title in Norrie's career, and of the three titles he has won, there are two ATP250 races (Los Cabos 2021 and Dre Beach 2022).
Fritz, who won the IW men's singles title this year, is also the first time to reach the Masters, in fact, before the Indian Wells championship, the U.S. players only had one experience of reaching the top of the ATP Tour - the 2019 Eastbourne Open.
So which of the four seasons of 2018-2022 do you think was the most surprising indian wells championship? (Source: House of Tennis Author: Barbie)