The Silicon Valley genius who transformed Indian Wells and turned the desert into a tennis paradise

TO Bill Gates He can be seen every evening occupying the same place in stage 1 of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Even he can’t ignore the best tennis players in the world when they play near his home. And the Microsoft co-founder and owner of one of the world’s largest fortunes gets a kick out of that place. So he was seen, for example, while he was having fun Elizabeth Shue -the actress Karate KiD, Back to the Future, The Saint OR Goodbye to Las Vegasamong many other films – Wednesday night, in the game that Rune Holger he beat Taylor Fritz.

Done: Gates doesn’t pay his entrance fee. He is a special guest of Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and another multi-billionaire. Some time ago they were arguing. Today Ellison – business is business – hosts Gates in the tournament he purchased in December 2009.

Even if he didn’t limit himself to maintaining the square. Since he has no shortage of money, he has also acquired the complex that no star wants to miss at the end of the American winter. And what did this New Yorker do who didn’t know his biological father and whose mother gave him up for adoption to a sister whose husband gave her his surname and who with just 1,400 dollars in 1977 founded Software Development Laboratories with two partners , the company that years later took the final name of Oracle?

Ellison transformed the tournament, expanded its dimensions, dressed it in glamor and thus managed to take Miami’s place to become, after the four Slams, the most important event on the men’s and women’s calendar.

Founder of Silicon Valley, in his fight for corporate positioning and his friendship with Steve Jobs he was a declared enemy of Gates. He owns villas, luxury cars, planes, yachts and even one of the Hawaiian islands. As well as the ATP Masters 1000 and the WTA 1000 the Puerto Rican one Charlie Pasarell and South African Raymond Moore They moved in 1999 to the middle of the desert, near Palm Springs and about two hours from Los Angeles.

Players say they are treated there like nowhere else in the world. Who have everything at their disposal. And they do everything for Ellison. So much that Rune, Andrey Rublev, Alex de Minaur, Daniil Medvedev, Maria Sakkari and Ons JabeurFor example, they did not hesitate to dress up for the tournament’s social networks and become vendors of merchandise and popcorn, cashiers or car ushers in the parking lot, for example.

Ellison watches the games. And the cameras always focus on him, of course. Money has extreme power…