Indian Wells Getting Its Baptism

The ceremonial opening was held last week, and now it’s time for the real thing at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

It’s something like putting a toe in the water, testing and evaluating the new $75-million facility with two days of qualifying, today and Thursday, before first-round play begins in the women’s event of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series on Friday. Admission for qualifying is free.

Men’s qualifying is scheduled Friday and Saturday, with play beginning Monday.

The top-seeded player in the women’s qualifying event is Rita Kuti Kis of Hungary. Kuti Kis won her first WTA tournament last month in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Also in the qualifying tournament is Stanford sophomore Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica, who will play eighth-seeded Els Callens of Belgium in the first round. Irvin qualified for the Australian Open and lost to eventual champion Lindsay Davenport.

Serena Williams is the defending champion, and is on another impressive streak. She has not lost a match in Southern California since 1998, when Hingis beat her in the quarterfinals at Manhattan Beach.

An opening-weekend promotional package is being offered. On Saturday and Sunday, for each ticket purchased, a fan will be able to get three more for free.

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The bar was raised recently in the category of tennis sports memorabilia.

At an exhibition event Saturday at the Sherwood Country Club, where Pete Sampras played Cecil Mamiit for the benefit of Sampras’ favorite charity, the Tim and Tom Gullikson Foundation for brain cancer research, an old Sampras racket was put on a table for a silent auction.

The racket, a Wilson Pro Staff, was nearly 10 years old, having been retired shortly after Sampras won his first Grand Slam event, the 1990 U.S. Open, with it. He had done another exhibition back then and signed and donated the racket to another charity, where it went for $300 to an auto executive named Steve Honig. Honig was just being a nice guy, knew little about tennis and put the racket up on a shelf in his garage, where it gathered dust for 10 years.

Honig’s friend, Dave Austin, was involved in Saturday’s charity event and asked Honig if he still had the racket and if he would donate it to this event. Honig said yes, and did a Web-site auction survey on the racket value, just for the fun of it. Best bid: $2,000

At the silent auction, just before the close of bidding, the high bid was $3,800. Honig walked by, saw it and felt good. A few minutes later, he walked by and the high bid was $50,000. He, like event organizers, assumed it was a typo, that the bid was $5,000. So they sought out the names on the list, Lord John and Lady Vanessa Guidon, residents of Thousand Oaks. Nope, they said. Their bid was $50,000.

“When I heard that,” Honig said, “my knees gave out.”

Later, he said, he felt very good about everything, since this money was going to a great cause.

“I had no idea about anything in tennis,” he said. “I didn’t know it was his first Grand Slam. I didn’t know what a Grand Slam was.”

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The Facts

* When: Friday-March 19. Women’s qualifying begins Wednesday. Main-draw play begins Friday for the women, Monday for the men.

* Surface: Hard court.

* Prize money: Combined $4.45 million, $2 million (women), $2.45 million (men).

* Defending champions: Serena Williams and Mark Philippoussis.