The subtitle also could be … “watching tennis while trying not to choke on the dust from the sandstorm.”

I covered the final day of the BNP Paribas Open for the New York Times,  and for those of you who don’t trawl nyt.com, here is the game story I wrote.

This Nadal kid … pretty good.

And the women? Waiting for someone to take control of the tour.  They’ve been cycling through No. 1s for a couple of years now. About five players appear capable of contending for the top spot — Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams, maybe Elena Dementieva. Certainly not the woman who won the women’s title, Vera Zvonareva, who is a nice little player but not someone you should expect to win major events. Nothing bigger than this, anyway, and women’s titles here since 2001 probably deserve astericks because the Williams sisters’ boycott of Indian Wells is now at eight years and counting.

Maria Sharapova could get back up there, too, if she ever gets healthy. She has pulled out of Miami, too.

Dinara Safina is ranked No. 2, currently, and could have taken over No. 1 had she made the Indian Wells final, but she was awful — awful — in the quarters against the modestly talented Victoria Azarenka. I know Safina got some things done in the last year, but she didn’t play well here, at all, and I believe the pressure of No. 1 got to her. Which is not what you want in your would-be world leaders.