Raaaaachel: Hello, and welcome to this very special episode of Questionable Calls. I'm David, and instead of Rishi, or rather Rishi has gone the full Michael Jackson route, it seems, turned into Kevin. The of us, Kevin and we spent a few days at Indian Wells last week. And on this we'll be talking all about our experience there on the grounds, losing our Indian Wells virginity, you could say. I live for the tea. I live for the drama. know, like ⁓ we talked about, maybe they kind of handles it a little bit better, but now, whether they like it or not, it's become a meme. ⁓ And ⁓ that's, ⁓ I living it. yesterday during the matches, I was posting on threads, because Brett Haber was commentating on the Eega-Citalina match. And he was talking about like, ⁓ the sun's out a little later now because it's a daily savings time has started. Kevin, would you like to say a little bit about yourself?

Kevin: Hi guys, I'm Kevin. I've met David through ⁓ in Seattle for a couple years. I'm based in New Jersey. ⁓ grew finding my love for tennis through my dad. I watched lot of Roger Federer, especially when I was young, and I played occasionally. Lost my interest, but then have regained it the past few years and been able to enjoy Indian Wells recently and also a U.S. Open in the past.

Raaaaachel: I posted on threads. Daylight savings time has started. Brett Haber, tennis channel. But everything needs to be attributed to him now. yeah, just like funny stuff. people were taking sides saying like, oh, Brett Haber is being an a-hole. then the people are saying like, oh, no, Miles should have cited him because he's like a journalistic peer, you know. But I don't know. You can see it either way. But I just find it.

Kevin: ⁓ Yeah, I think it's interesting at least. It spices it up a little. don't think any of it should have got... I mean, I don't think any of it got crazy personal, so I think it's fine. But, yeah.

Raaaaachel: Nice, yeah. Not only will we be talking about our experience at Indian Wells today, but we'll also be comparing it to the US Open experience, which we are very familiar with, as there are some key similarities and differences. ⁓ ⁓ difficult for us, we'll go through any 10s we played this week. And for the Friday I got back, I had a match that night. ⁓ it was part of Yeah, is kind of thing that keeps this world entertaining, ⁓ just tennis.

Kevin: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ yes. But yeah, that's pretty much the episode. ⁓ you have any questions, feel free to let us know.

Kevin: Ho!

Raaaaachel: So like, you know, we've talked about co-ed in the past and basically, if you're not familiar, it's a league that includes both men and women every match consists of two mixed as well men's doubles, women's doubles, and then men's singles and women's singles. Everything is just set each and you have to everything within the time limit, which is usually an hour and a half or so. Kevin, would you like to take us out?

Kevin: Yeah, I forgot to, Yes, I did, of course I like, I was on the, yeah, on the thing and then I got off it. That's we have for today folks. Please make sure to like and subscribe on the video and follow us on your podcast platform of choice. You can find us on Instagram at questionable.pod. Thanks and talk to you next time.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ We trained for this. So usually you run out of time, things are very disorganized. It doesn't even count for anything. It's mostly for fun. I have to drive all the way out to Redmond and even like, I mean, it was Redmond, but it was basically the edge, the Eastern edge of Redmond. So as far away as you could get. And then I got to the, the venue or the club and after certain hours, they required a passcode to get in.

Kevin: Aww, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Raaaaachel: which my team captain who was not there did not communicate that to us. So I stuck outside in the rain for a bit and then finally people let me in. And I think that they were the other team, like the hosting team, but they didn't say anything to me about that. So it was kind of disorganized. Eventually we got started ⁓ I was playing mixed to off ⁓ and don't to be negative ⁓ on the or to like blame anyone, but now it's after the match. I can say that my mixed doubles partner was not to the level that I thought she would be. basically we, ⁓ I mean, she missed a lot of volleys and double faults and I mean, I wasn't perfect either, but I felt like I could have gotten a partner that was more suited for me.

Kevin: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: But I think we won overall because they had to forfeit, I think, two courts because people weren't available. And then we won some other of those matches too, including men's doubles. But then, yeah, after that, I played some doubles for fun with Rishi and some of our other friends and then played a practice singles match yesterday at 7 a.m. But it was free. So that was nice. Getting back into it, I also recorded

Kevin: Yes.

Raaaaachel: that match, so gotta get some footage from that. Have you played at all this week?

Kevin: Not played at all this week. I have been bedridden. got a bad stomach bug on Sunday. So I've I've been just getting back into working out the past two days. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Okay, well hopefully you can play some tennis in the upcoming weeks and start your journey that way.

Kevin: Yeah, definitely. I'm definitely trying to get more involved in playing tennis in the future.

Raaaaachel: today we're going to talk about our whole trip from planning ⁓ to what while we were there, things we expected, surprises and whatnot. So starting with planning this trip, I had wanted to go to Indian Wells for a long time. It just made sense being on the West Coast ⁓ and I friends who had gone before, so it seemed pretty doable. Never been to a ⁓ Masters 1000 level tournament before. Previously, I'd only gone to the US Open and then also the Hong Kong 250. But yeah, I wanted to kind of expand my tennis tournament attendance and didn't even I always heard great things about it. So finally made it happen this year and I decided to go from ⁓ Monday to Friday, really Monday Thursday, but my logic was that the weekend's gonna be pretty packed. And because it's early, I'll get to see qualifiers and practices as well as first round, kind of a similar approach as we did for US Open. What I didn't realize was because this is a 1000, it's not quite the same as a Grand Slam with a 128 person draw. Even though there still are 128 players, the 32 seeds get a buy into the second round, which means they don't play the first round and they start playing later. So we can still watch matches in the first round, but none of the seeds would be playing, which I should have realized earlier. Maybe that would have changed the schedule, but. Given that we went with our plan, how do you think that went overall in terms of what we got to see?

Kevin: think for what we got to see, though we didn't get to see the seated players play, ⁓ the ⁓ were pretty accessible to see practice-wise. ⁓ were practicing pretty regularly. ⁓ had that open area near, I think it's ⁓ practice one or two, where the players are just all working out and stuff. ⁓ And was still some good tennis, because we all know the qualifiers. They're all fighting to get in. it's ⁓ the Open. you can argue Indian Wells is the second biggest torment in the US. So I think for what you planned and then how I hopped on a little late, like it went very smooth, honestly. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, and then ended up staying about ⁓ 15 minute drive away in the town of Indio, not India, but Indio, and Motel 6, which is like the most basic, ⁓ I guess, most affordable which, you know, like, it ⁓ wasn't like the place and there was some questionable characters.

Kevin: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: which is our jam, you know, we're all about the questionables. for we needed, it was fine, right? It was a place to stay. Now there was an occasional bug or two, but the beds were clean and the water was ⁓ mostly running nothing got stolen. So it was fine. You may not like it if you go, but you know, for people like us, we're pretty low maintenance, so was fine. And ⁓ flight tickets were also not bad. But speaking of flights, ⁓ had a much longer flight than I did and encountered some interesting people on your flight.

Kevin: Yes, so on the way there because I was coming from the east coast EWR, which is Newark International Airport, lot of people like to fly out of there instead of going from JFK or LaGuardia because those are both notable for having more traffic. ⁓ also since it's a smaller airport, ⁓ is only one flight that goes from that airport to Palm Springs ⁓ vice versa each day. So on the way there, I saw former think she's former top 10 Grand Slam finalist Jeannie Bouchard.

Raaaaachel: current pickleball professional.

Kevin: Exactly. She was not in the best shape, but someone said her name. I looked back and I asked her if she was Jeannie Bouchard. And like very, very briefly, yeah. And she's like, she like nodded. She was, she was really tired just not feeling up to it. But I could tell also she booked that ticket or ⁓ booked it for her booked it very last second because she was in the second to last row of the plane and I was in the last row.

Raaaaachel: You top there?

Kevin: I intentionally did that so I could get the ILC at least. So yeah, that was an interesting experience on the way there. And then on the way back booked, because there was only one flight, direct flight from Palm Springs to where I live, on the back I wanted to get back a little earlier so I booked a flight with a layover in Denver. There was a lot of mistakes made with that layover in Denver ⁓ but I went to the airport at 5am and turns out, I think she was up to top 40, Alicia Parks was Which is funny enough because we actually ⁓ got see her play a little bit so that was kind of amazing. yeah, that was interesting. Interesting encounter at this ⁓ small ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah. Basically, if you're not flying private, then everyone kind of goes through the same terminal at the airport. So let's talk about tickets. For a lot of events, ⁓ you ⁓ other events, it's kind of a rush to get tickets ⁓ and then resellers selling for really high prices. But I felt that the Indian wealth ticketing system was pretty good because it was all on their site.

Kevin: Exactly.

Raaaaachel: And I think there were resellers, but it wasn't as bad. Grounds passes are very cheap for the first few days, like $10, I think, for qualifying. And then during round one, I think it's like $30.

Kevin: Yeah. It was $30 for grounds and then I think that it was like 50 for like stadium access, I think. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, so we ended up deciding to buy Stadium 2 ticketed seats the highest section. That way, during the day, we could be anywhere except for Stadium 1. We also got night session tickets for Stadium 1, just in case we wanted to be there at night. I heard that this year, the tournament actually, it was different from before because Stadium 2 Upper Bowl used to be available to people who had general admission to Grounds Pass. year they changed it. I mean, we were still able to go because we had the ticket, it generally, ⁓ Stadium was kind of very sparsely for most of the matches, day and night, as a result that. And I heard rumors next year they might be changing it back.

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, think them doing that really like even for like I was looking at the matches we didn't go to but even also the matches we went to even though they're like there were decent names on Stadium 2 because of the fact that you had to have a ticket to get in the attendance was so sparse like if we really wanted to we could have went lower level I'm sure I wouldn't have been an issue at all. And I feel like that effect that hurts the player as well like Like they kind of want to have an atmosphere, especially these young players that want to make a name for themselves. Like for example, one match we saw, I think it's stadium two was Stevens versus Camille Osorio. Sloan Stevens is a former US Open champion and Osorio is one of the best players out of Columbia. So there should be a crowd for that, but because they decide to charge for these tickets, they don't get the crowd that they should. And then also, Indian Wells probably lost They thought they were going to make a bunch more money for charging for these seats. They made a big mistake on that. So I think they're going over for, I think it's just, it'll for a better atmosphere, better attendance, cetera. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, on our last night there, we actually didn't go into Stadium 1 at all. Just because of the order of play, we didn't feel like the match over there was more exciting than everywhere else. So that was kind of a waste, but we didn't know that going in. Next time, I would consider maybe doing Tuesday to Friday, or maybe even Wednesday to Saturday. Maybe get like one day of qualies and the rest

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: round one and maybe one day of round two. way you can see the seeds play at least better matches. ⁓ like the day we left Friday, those matches were like so much better. And like round three was even better. ⁓ ⁓

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and funny enough, also like the second day that we were there on Tuesday, that was our best day in terms of like getting to meet players and stuff.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, they were still practicing. I don't think we met anyone from Qualys, but it was all practices. ⁓ That it was basically like AAPI day for us, Asian American. Well, they're not all Asian American. There's Asian. ⁓ Because we saw, but we met Lerner Tian in passing and by Michael And then.

Kevin: ⁓ yeah, yeah, we didn't really, yeah, maybe, yeah. Yes. There, yeah.

Raaaaachel: Wang Xin Yu and... What else did we see on the grounds? Oh, press...

Kevin: the ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah, with Coleman that day too, Coleman Wall.

Kevin: Yeah, Coleman was that day, but he lost. then we met, we watched the Taiwanese player. He won the first round of, well, he won Col, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I think Sang, yeah. And then ⁓ we left, ⁓ let you tell this part. ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah. ⁓ sang, right? Yeah. Okay, well, we plan to get dinner off the grounds, but it's kind of tough to find restaurants that are open for dinner because just like here in Seattle, most places close at nine ⁓ for reason. So our choices were a limited, but we were feeling like Asian food. So ⁓ decided to to a Thai restaurant, which actually had multiple locations, but we chose one in

Kevin: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: of La Quinta. Yeah. Yeah. And wasn't the cheapest place, but yeah, we were feeling Thai. So we just went for it. And we walk in and I see some people sitting at the table wearing tennis type clothes. And I'm like, oh, maybe they are fans or maybe like they are associated with the tournament in some way. But then

Kevin: Yeah, Lakita was pretty close to the ground as well.

Raaaaachel: we keep walking and then one person from the table that I didn't see before stands up and it's Qin Wenjian right in front of me. And I'm like, Wen. Almost if I knew her, right? ⁓ But was surprised. And then I immediately thought, I don't want to be that guy, like that fan who bothers people while eating, you know, like they deserve their privacy. So I'm like, ⁓ sorry for bothering you. And then ⁓

Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah!

Raaaaachel: We just sat down and you were already at our table, right? And what happened there?

Kevin: So I think right before we sat down I think she had gotten up and she was on the way to the bathroom So when you said Qing one I around and I'm like, what the heck are you talking about? Like I didn't see I was kind of out of it a little bit a little tired. I was maybe jet-lagged I would turned around and then I realized I was blocking her out the way to the bathroom So I would just like, ⁓ shoot, let me just sit down, get out of her way and let her go.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, later on, there were two bathrooms at that restaurant. were the kind like, like, like private bathrooms, right? They're not multiple stalls. So I went in one and I wasn't sure if it was the same one that she used, but as was washing my hands, I was like, is this the same faucet that she touched?

Kevin: Yeah. Is this the faucet of Olympic gold?

Raaaaachel: Yeah. But again, like we didn't want to bother them while they were still eating. So this table that we were sitting in was like a little more, like deeper into the restaurant, not that much, but we were like a couple of tables down from them. And ⁓ problem was though, that they were closer to the door than we were, but I was always like, keeping my eye on them. And ⁓ decided that we would talk to her once they were done eating. And then, we saw them eating. We saw them ordering some more food. We saw them ordering dessert.

Kevin: Yeah, of course. we were. Yeah, of course.

Raaaaachel: getting the bill, paying for the bill. Then once that was all done, even though we weren't done eating, or we pretty much were, yeah, we're just watching them. Yeah, we just went over there and then ⁓ asked her in Chinese if I could get a photo with her. I used Chinese because I wanted to be as friendly as possible. So she said yes, she was super nice about it, got some photos and she signed one of my balls and got a photo with you. And then she left. So that was really cool because We wanted to see her earlier that day and we knew that she'd be practicing, but we were not able to see her because leading to this next point, the layout of the grounds is a bit different from US Open, because there's like 19 practice chords, but some of them, can't roll most of them really. You can't really get like on the side of the chord. It's roped off. And it's similar in a way to US Open because

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: U.S. Open has that long row of courts that you can only sit on top of. can't be next to the court. Those the actual practice courts, right? But then they use the show courts ⁓ as courts in the morning. Whereas at Wells, they have dedicated courts as well as show courts. So a bit different in that sense, but some of the practice courts you could only see from up top and there was like no to access them. Whereas other ones, you could actually kind of be behind the baseline then the players, or on the side, with some seating, the players could come and sign things that way. But Jean-Wen was on ⁓ chord that was like the very far end and zero access. So that was kind of a bummer to not be able to meet during the practice, but what we got so much better because no one else was there.

Kevin: Yeah, and we didn't make any real scene at the restaurant. Like we want to be as respectful as possible, as David said. yeah, so having some of those practice courts, they not having access was kind of a bummer. But like also that's the same way in US Open, except I feel like we also know they practice in like, you know, for fan week, they practice in the stadiums as well, which makes them way more accessible. ⁓ a good amount of the practice courts. aren't really that accessible and they also had like that if you recall they had that entrance to the back where they can just get out and avoid the fans if they really wanted to. They don't have that at us ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah, yeah. At U of Open, the accessible for meeting players' are probably Grandstand Court 17, things called Court 17. Because they're big courts, but you can get right up close to the court. ⁓ yeah. When we met Chin Wen,

Kevin: Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's actually where I'm at center.

Raaaaachel: It was. ⁓ Yeah, it was only us there and it's not like it was like a huge mess of people.

Kevin: No, I don't think people really knew or they were just like, think there was like next to us, I know there was like some older folks, like I think they were maybe college, maybe college related there. Like they weren't, they didn't know or at all. Like no one was really bothering.

Raaaaachel: Right. Yeah, that's funny thing about players that we look up to, right? Because in this world, they're very well known. on place like the grounds of Indian Wells or US Open, they can't around without being noticed, right? Recognized, mobbed. But then when they're out in the world, most people will not know who they are. And you might the occasional people like us who recognize them, but they can kind of walk around enjoying relative anonymity, which is interesting.

Kevin: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: But going back to the grounds, Indian Wells is called tennis paradise and for good reason, I think. Like after being there, I feel like I understand the reason for that. It's a really nice facility, very clean, a lot of space and a lot of seating. It's normally a regular tennis club with some seats like the green folding chairs. But then for this event, they bring in all these like really large stands, bleachers on the side and there's like plenty of seating at most courts. And there's a lot of palm trees and lot of shaded areas, lots of places to drink water and generally kind like a festival atmosphere. People there seem to be pretty happy and generally like there for tennis for the most part, as opposed to US Open in which people might just be there for the vibes or like a status kind of thing.

Kevin: Yeah, I think like if you compare like US Open to Indian Wells, like Open, you will see a lot of people just drinking the honeydews, like just there with friends. And then also it kind of reeks of marijuana, honestly, on the grounds that US Open. ⁓ Tennis Paradise, I didn't a lick of that. Like it just felt nicer. People were ⁓ like respectful. was there to just properly just enjoy tennis. So it was really nice, yeah.

Raaaaachel: you Yeah. And for the first few days, at least, I feel like I really noticed a difference in the demographics of the audience or the crowds, because most people I saw were like older Caucasians from California. And that really suits and matches the area. Probably retirees, people with lot of money who probably go over a year. A lot of like, not fedoras, but like wide rim hats and bucket hats.

Kevin: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Makes sense considering the weather, yeah.

Raaaaachel: That's, yeah, very California. Later on, ⁓ felt like we did see more diverse crowds, especially, of course, the Fonseca match and other places. But generally, it's mostly white people. Nothing wrong with that. That's just what I noticed. ⁓

Kevin: Yeah, I think it just yeah the demographic that's near that area the demographic that's into tennis as well like really actually into tennis compared to like US Open where you're a track probably you will attract a wider variety of fans because it's like a spectacle it's like a thing to see it's one of the four Grand Slams they have fan week right they have so many things they do outside of tennis compared to like this where it's more purely tennis makes sense

Raaaaachel: Yeah. And like there weren't as many screaming kids either, although I did see some school groups, which was kind of cool. And, you know, the first couple of days it's, it's only $10. So pretty much anyone can go. But I think also there are fewer kids because school is still in session. That's why I'm wondering how the kids were be, were able to be there if they weren't in a school group, but maybe they have flexibility. I could never go when I was growing up. It was too far and like I had school, but.

Kevin: you Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: So then mentioned stadium courts before. So there's Stadium Court 1 and 2. And then 3 also has some ticketed seats, but for the most part is general admission. And all the other courts are general admission. So compared to US Open, how would you say it was to try to get a seat at any court?

Kevin: I think because of the fact we went on the non-seeded days, it wasn't too crazy. though we went to Fonseca, we went to Monfils, we didn't have a crazy hard time trying to find these seats. ⁓ I think if we went on a seated day and saw, for example, Raducani I think, 3 for her first match, I'm sure that would have been a little more of a struggle. I think we don't have the proper gauge on it because we didn't get to see those seeded players. But for what we experienced, I don't think it was a struggle.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, or like Iyala too. ⁓ People will line up hours ahead or watch the previous match to be on the court for her. even like we were there and we did kind see her practicing, but like never got to get closer because there were so many people every time she was practicing. ⁓ And also noticed that as the week went on, each day progressively got more and more crowded ⁓ and

Kevin: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Raaaaachel: We left on Friday, we weren't even there on Friday, but I would imagine the weekend was super crowded. So yeah, we're just telling you our experience of us being physically there, but that was only that part of the tournament. So it could be different if you decide to go later. yeah, generally I feel like it was pretty easy to access the players as long as they were willing to ⁓ people.

Kevin: ⁓ for sure.

Raaaaachel: because they had their own area for the practice courts and then it up to them to actually go to where the fans were.

Kevin: Yeah. Which I think it's kind of a nice balance, right? Like if they wanted to, they could see the players, but if they did have to do like events or something, they could just or like whatever the press, they could just go out the other way. So like it's accessible to an extent where it's not. It's not like US Open where it's kind of, I don't want to it's like a zoo in the US Open, but it's a lot more chaotic because like, where are you going to go? Because it's the ground and then you have to get out to the parking lot. like.

Raaaaachel: ⁓

Kevin: They don't really have an easy escape route unless they have the security around them. So I think it's a lot better for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, they had to walk on the grounds with everyone else. There's no tunnels at US Open. ⁓ So they got mobbed. yeah, there were also a few special appearances on one of their stages. Haas, tournament director, did a short interview. then Casper also did an interview. And then there was ⁓ a, there was an EGA signing, ⁓ which ⁓

Kevin: Yeah, there was an ego-siding people lined up so early.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, so we were like, ⁓ it's at 3 PM, right? So we'll get there around 2 45. We were watching a match on stadium two. So we're like, it's right there. Let's go outside and join the line. But the line had started like probably at two or before. not only that, they this really weird wristband system. I mean, I guess it's not weird. makes sense. like basically only people with wristbands could do the thing that you want to do, which is meet the player. ⁓

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: They must have had some kind of limit, you know, because they're short on time. So maybe like 50 people, they only had time for like 50 autographs or whatever. So that makes sense. like, if you want that, you have to be there early. And that's the thing about these tournaments, right? Especially early rounds, there's so much going on at any one time and you can't be everywhere at once. So you have to decide what am I willing to give up in order to be at this thing and to get this thing.

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. It's very much pick your battles. Cause we also know, think, uh, three, 30 or four, we w cause we also saw that day there was a Yokovich autograph signing and that line was out the door around the bend. It was insane. Like don't get me wrong. Like I'm sure any tennis fan would love to like have a Yokovich autograph, but you're probably losing two, three hours of your day just to wait in line to hope to get an autograph. And also. You probably did need the wristband for that one as well. So it's yeah, but I think because of the player access you can have like, ⁓ like we saw Yokova chat, I think practice court three. I don't think like they have these events, but I think for the big part, it's more worth it for you to see them on the practice courts rather than do those events in my opinion.

Raaaaachel: Yeah. Yeah, I think we saw him on, guess it was three, but like in the past I would see YouTube videos of people getting really good camera angles on a player from behind and like basically filming their whole practice. And when I got there, I was like, how, how do people do that? Cause there's a fence and there's like a windscreen on it. But what I discovered was if you put your phone right up against the bottom of the fence, that's where the windscreen stops. And like the chain link fence gives you a little gap that you can stick your phone. camera lens through which is tiny and if you crop a little bit then you get rid of like the fence and you can basically get a high quality video that way. My video was like 30 seconds but like if you wanted to you could really get like a full length video.

Kevin: ⁓ yeah, there were plenty of fans doing that because like those they have like the wall and then they have the courts on one side and then you have the pathway it makes sense like that like To have that convenience to just even be able to see the players there. I guess yeah

Raaaaachel: Yeah, let's talk about the freebies because we're not here to advertise for any company, but the tournament had some key sponsors, usually what happens is they're on the grounds and they're trying to get people to become customers, buy their stuff. So they're giving away free stuff. And one of the sponsors was also US Open, but it was La Roche-Posay. I pronounce differently, but it's a little vulgar, so I won't say it.

Kevin: You

Raaaaachel: it's a sunscreen company in skincare, guess. they had a room ⁓ and booths and they're out free sunscreen. So ⁓ pretty generously little bottles. So was no limit. think what she's trying to join actually. Yeah.

Kevin: Yeah he is, it just says are not able to display their capacity for the room.

Raaaaachel: Well, let's keep going. Yeah, so we got the sunscreen, and there's no limit. So we could go back as many times as we wanted to in a single day on multiple days. So I ended up with like five or six bottles of sunscreen. And not only did they have the sample bottles, that they're really big ones on display, as well as like some smaller sprays. And I really wanted to grab one the big ones, but they weren't really looking or anything, they wouldn't really care that much, ⁓ was thinking. But like I remembered I'm only flying carry-on, so I couldn't really bring it into the airport. I did grab a couple of the sprays. Don't tell them.

Kevin: Yeah. I mean I think yeah, I've even had a I mean us open they do the same thing with the small sunscreen ⁓ I don't know if they have like that storefront like they did that Indian Wells

Raaaaachel: ⁓ Yeah, they might have a little booth in the row of sponsors. But yeah, like the sunscreen was very, very useful to have an event like this, especially in California, the desert so dry and like, they reminded you to like, reapply every 80 minutes, which is a lot more frequent than I would have done if I didn't know that. yeah, of course, like wearing a hat, sunglasses.

Kevin: ⁓ yeah.

Raaaaachel: I actually forgot to bring shorts. I thought I'd brought shorts, but there's actually the long pants version of the shorts. So I was wearing long pants the entire time, which ended up being fine because then my legs weren't exposed to the sun. And then at night when it got cold, because it does, it's desert, then I was a little warmer.

Kevin: BLEH Yeah, I think as you said, a jacket is a necessity just because it's in the desert, it gets so cold at night. yeah, reapplying every 80 minutes probably is best. I don't know about you, but I definitely got a little minor sunburn on my ear. I got told when I came back, when I saw people on Friday, when I came back, ⁓ had a little bit of a ⁓ tan. So ⁓ definitely, yeah, sun is out there.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ yeah.

Kevin: And we got blessed with great weather.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, and right next to the sunscreen tent was yogurt, faye, and again, it was like unlimited samples pretty much. And each of the samples was ⁓ decent amount, like what you would eat for breakfast maybe. Yeah, they had five flavors, honey, cherry, blueberry, strawberry, ⁓

Kevin: Fire. Yeah, like a normal Greek yogurt size sample. Wait, honey, strawberry, ⁓ yeah peach.

Raaaaachel: peach. Yeah, so we would kind of like cycle through all the flavors. I think we averaged like three or four times per day at the yogurt booth.

Kevin: Yeah, yeah, we made it our mission to basically spend as little money on food the ground as possible. And I think for the most part, we did a very good job. Like, I think maybe you spent a little bit first day. I spent a little first day because that was like the first time we kind of flew in, whatever, right? Trying to get our ⁓ But I think after that, we decided to like just get brunch in the morning and then. Last till dinner. ⁓ And then do that. And I think that works. I think that was perfectly fine. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I wasn't aware of the yogurt when I first got there, but I was hungry because I hadn't eaten anything all day. Woke up at like five, you know, just catch the flight, didn't eat in the airport. So I got a salad because I wanted something clean. And the salad was $22. It had fish, which was fine, but like salads, maybe a bit of a off tangent rant here, but salads are like the least.

Kevin: Yeah. Heh.

Raaaaachel: value meal you can get because it's just leaves, they don't even cook it. Like if you kind of like it all together, it doesn't take up that much space, you know, like you're not getting that much, but they still charge you like at least $10 at McDonald's. Well, ⁓ it hasn't gone that much? Maybe not McDonald's, but

Kevin: Yes. ⁓ probably more. I don't know. don't buy. So I agree with you on that stance for salads. Like to the point where I refuse to buy any sort of salad, period. Like because I just don't think it's worth it. It's not filling. Like a salad is supposed to like, ⁓ like people sometimes use salad as like a meal replacement, but because it doesn't have enough like nutrients, like protein, carbs, et cetera. You're still going to eat anyway, and especially at like Indian Wells, like a torment where you're already getting, you're sweating a lot. especially, yeah. ⁓ suggest against buying the food there in general. ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah, most of the other food vendor menu items were around the same price as well, above $20. I did get some tots for like, what was it, $16 or $12?

Kevin: Yeah, the chili tots were 16, the normal tots were 12.

Raaaaachel: Yeah. And then I caved and got a boba because I had boba there is $11. Never But I thirsty. ⁓

Kevin: Yeah, I was thinking about getting it too, so I don't even believe it, yeah.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, but the yogurt was a lifesaver because you eat the yogurt and your hunger is kind of blunted a bit. So you don't really feel the need to eat a lot of food. And afterwards, of course, you would eat off the grounds and ⁓ get food. ⁓ yeah.

Kevin: Yes. I mean tennis players, right?

Raaaaachel: While we were there, we, you know, as you're in the tennis world and you kind of get immersed, follow certain people on Instagram or YouTube, you start to kind of have a repository in your mind of who you're aware of in the tennis world. And this happens at US Open too. Like I would see a lot of people that I only would see on the screen in the past. So YouTubers, Instagrammers, people who are like, coaches, instructors, personalities, other podcasters even. ⁓ I saw a good amount while we were there. And I'm sure, and I know that there were more people that were there at the same time that we didn't see, but it's such a big place. There's so many things to see, many places to be at that you're not gonna see them even if they're at the same place really. But some people we saw while we were there that we got to talk to. Sky Kim, Roger Pro Tennis on YouTube. Amy Zhu, tennis player who we've mentioned before. Dylan who is at Tennis with Dylan on Instagram. Troy Tennis who's a play tester. Blair Henley, fellow media industry professional. We didn't actually get to meet her, but we saw her while she was working, meaning being in front of the camera, talking to the mic, that kind of thing. And then I took a story of that and she reposted it then ⁓ told us like, if we see her again to say hi, if it wasn't working, which is really cool. But even though we tried to ⁓ her after that, because that was the first day we didn't see her again, unfortunately, but would have been cool to see her again. And then I had been talking to ⁓ from grounds past podcast and saw her on her very last night there. But she was kind of running around to different things because I guess for her, she was actually working too, like going to the press conferences, doing interviews, making sure she was covering various necessary matches and whatnot. So didn't get to talk to her very much, but hopefully we'll see her ideas open because she is New York based. But yeah, it's really cool to see people like that. And I feel like it really adds to this feeling of a place like Indian Wells being like a kind of like a Comic Con. sort of way because you run into like what you would consider a celebrity, but most of them are just like normal people. So it's really cool to add that layer of ⁓ personal encounters and familiarity.

Kevin: Yeah. Definitely.

Raaaaachel: also ⁓ able to buy some stuff at the stores and just like the food, the merch is very overpriced.

Kevin: very overpriced very stuffed with so the sponsor for the indian wells right now is called it's uh bmp perivus all of the merch was slammed with that uh branding so me personally like looking at the merch a was already overpriced b it's lulu lemon so it's probably even more overpriced and then see what the bank slapped on it it wasn't the most appealing merch i think they could have like if they could have had some merch with the logo being less just in your face that would have been great that's my opinion but ⁓ yeah it was yeah they definitely were also trying to rob you of the merch and I noticed ⁓ like looking online at least ⁓ there was a lululemon indian wells store on site I noticed that all the merchandise in that store is not online so I guess they have ground exclusive just something

Raaaaachel: Yeah, there was that store and there was the general store with a bunch of different brands. had good amount of stuff too, actually. They had Yonex, Adidas, Nike, Wilson, just like their ⁓ current line of clothes, which was cool. And then Tennis Warehouse also had a tent, I guess it was. Didn't have any clothes there, but they had shoes, they had rackets, most of the stuff they on their website.

Kevin: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Normally they have a demo court as well where you can like try rackets, try shoes, but this time they didn't. But of course, like for gear nerds like myself, it was cool to see all that. And actually wearing a shirt that I got, which is Yonex. And actually, me turn around here so people can see the full thing. If you can see, it's Indian Wells in Japanese too. So I thought it was pretty special to ⁓

Kevin: ⁓ nice. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: be able to get a shirt like this where you wouldn't really be able to get it anywhere else. But it cost me dearly, it was like $58.

Kevin: I even know that, I thought it was 40-something, 50 is, oh.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, there was something that happened on the last day. me give you some background here. So when you go to an event like this, there's specific policies regarding what you can bring in. So bags, limits on sometimes you can't bring or food, and also cameras. So me being photographer, I really wanted to my camera to get shots of the players, oh, hey, got crashed by Rishi. Basically, I got detained by security on the grounds at Indian Wells. And it's because I brought my camera in, basically violating the camera policy of Indian Wells. And they had to escort me off the grounds. So I felt like I was doing the walk of shame. But I was able to put in a locker, and they brought me back in. So.

Djoker: What's the what's wrong with the camera policy?

Raaaaachel: That's what I'm wondering, you know, what's the deal? But.

Djoker: No, but what is it? What is the policy?

Raaaaachel: The policy is you cannot bring in cameras that have a detachable lens. So what that means is, see I detached it, right? I can put different lenses on this camera. Other cameras have a fixed lens and you can't take it off. Those cameras would have been okay to bring, like a point and shoot, which ⁓ guess are cool again nowadays, but ⁓ these kind of cameras, technically could not bring them. But in my research, I had found that other people had brought them in before. They said, I saw other people with cameras there who were not media.

Djoker: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: and no one cared. So I was like, okay, like the rules not enforced, but one person, one security guy took a job way too seriously and busted me for it.

Djoker: That's the strangest thing, I believe you had this at US Open.

Raaaaachel: Yes, but the US Open has their own policy, which is much more generous. They actually specify the maximum focal length that you can have on the lens, which is 300. And if you can see here, this one is 300 at the maximum zoom. yeah, so I was firmly within, not firmly, but I was within the the boundaries of that policy at US Open. But as I found out from the security guy, size matters. In this case,

Djoker: Just that, just enough.

Raaaaachel: length matters because they noticed my length, I mean the length of my lens, and that's how they busted me. So if I had a smaller lens, they wouldn't have noticed. But yeah, it resolved itself. There was no police involved. They didn't take my picture or anything. ⁓ I felt like they were not very knowledgeable about how cameras work because they took pictures of the camera, of the lens, and they sent it to people and like, ⁓ watch out for this kind of camera. So they didn't really know. Yeah.

Kevin: Good.

Djoker: That's weird.

Kevin: It was insanely weird behavior. They were like, kicking Ascordium off the ground. It's not that serious.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I was thinking, can I just make a break for it and lose in the crowd?

Kevin: You probably could have on that last day it was more crowded

Djoker: ⁓ And did they catch you in like a specific day or did they just catch you the first time around?

Raaaaachel: That's the thing because I brought the camera in, not on the first day, because I wanted to see how it was, scope it out. It seemed fine to me. I saw people with cameras. So on the second and third days, I brought the camera in. No one cared. Not a problem. But on our fourth and last day, this is in the late afternoon, that's when they busted me. So I'm like, I guess it's not so bad because I already got my pictures I End of the day, know, like I don't have to carry the camera around anymore. But I did try to bribe.

Djoker: Yeah.

Raaaaachel: the security guy because I had to pay for the locker, which was 20 bucks. And I'm like, what if I just give the money to you instead? And we forget any of this ever happened. But he was an upstanding citizen. He was good at his job. He fought the corruption, you know, the rot, refused the bribe, but yeah, it was fine.

Djoker: Hahaha

Raaaaachel: Yeah, they're a little uptight.

Djoker: Well, at least you were able to get all the photos, because I would have been shocked, because you have some nice photos on

Raaaaachel: Thank you, yeah. It is tough because you go there as a fan, right? And same thing with like the people we mentioned before that we met, like Grounds Pass, podcasts, all these people, they're technically still working while they're there. They're making content. And so are we kind of, but we're mostly there to enjoy the matches ⁓ ⁓ right? Don't wanna work that much. so I tried to get some photos, but... My first priority was just to enjoy the experience.

Djoker: Yeah, of course.

Raaaaachel: Yeah. I think that I would want to go again ⁓ next year, but I would do some things differently. We mentioned before possibly going at a later time. So instead of Monday to Friday, maybe Wednesday to Saturday, just some better matches. And we about the food now, not to buy on site. And ⁓ They do have an app, which is very helpful. You can see all the practice schedule, scores and everything. ⁓

Kevin: You can watch matches live, like let's say you're in Stadium 2 and you want to watch a match live on Stadium 1 on your phone, you can. The app is good for live scoring events that are going on. that's how we found out about, there like a Yoko Vachotograph signing. was, Michael Chang was doing stuff. ⁓ The is constantly updating. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Okay, well, there's probably much more that we haven't got into, but that's basically the gist of our experience. Now, moving on to where we are now, we're currently in the semi-final stage for both men women. So based on the semi-finalists, let's quickly give our predictions for who's gonna be in the final and the overall winner. Right now in the mens we have.

Djoker: Men's, I'm just gonna spit it out. have Sinner versus Zverev Alkharaz versus Medvedev. My prediction is Medvedev beats Alkharaz. Sinner beats Zverev. No, ⁓ Zverev Sinner. Then Medvedev beats Zverev.

Raaaaachel: You think we're gonna have a very competitive final?

Djoker: yeah yeah yeah then then metredeaf wins does a weird like celebration maybe does the fish celebration flips off the entire crowd and then And then that's the greatest moment in the tennis of all time, including all grand slams.

Kevin: You

Raaaaachel: That is, ⁓ that sounds like an overdose of hopium right there. We're not in 2019 anymore.

Djoker: Yeah.

Kevin: Yeah

Raaaaachel: I think it's very likely that we're going to get a Synchroize final again, because know, Synner is kind of Zeriv's daddy, right? So I don't think Zeriv really has a chance.

Djoker: not as much as Zverev's daddy, I don't know. Zverev won a little bit against.

Raaaaachel: Not lately.

Djoker: Not lately. So yeah, maybe Sinner beats Varev and then it's a Medvedev Sinner final, which is a little more boring than a Zverev Medvedev final, but... Medvedev wins either ways. Goat Vedev.

Raaaaachel: Yeah.

Kevin: haha

Raaaaachel: Mivinev has been on quite the tear lately despite his travel issues. Like beating Draper was very impressive, but Draper was probably gassed as well. And then for women, believe the first semi-final started today. ⁓

Kevin: It's about, yeah, think it just started. Yeah, it just started.

Raaaaachel: Sabalenka, Nosková, ⁓ Sabalenka's taken the first set probably. And then Rabakhanov, Svidlina later today, probably Rabakhanov's gonna take it. Rebacca is now number two in the live rankings.

Kevin: It's just going to be a Rabakhan Savalanka final for the women's side and the men's side. think obviously Sinner Alcaraz. Yeah, boring, I feel like at least Alcaraz, especially the terror he's been on so far to start the year, he hasn't lost. It's really hard to bet against him. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Well, who do you think is gonna take the championship?

Kevin: ⁓ I Alcaraz. I think the form he is in is ridiculous.

Raaaaachel: Yeah, I think Alcaraz as well and Rabacuna. Maybe recency bias because of Australian Open, but I can see it.

Kevin: Yeah, I was gonna say Rebacca on that video.

Djoker: Yeah but this isn't Rubakina's court.

Raaaaachel: I guess, but she's been doing well against everyone.

Kevin: Yeah, she's been... hardcore right? Yes. Bagula yesterday. ⁓

Djoker: Who did she beat? Who did she beat? Okay.

Kevin: She had a walkover, she was about to be cartel.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ yeah, cast joke, Baptiste.

Kevin: Baptiste made her fight a little

Djoker: I think I'm gonna give the to the recently engaged energy, the power of the one ring.

Kevin: Yes.

Raaaaachel: ⁓ yes. You see her finger? Like it's digging into her finger and it's like there's blood.

Djoker: Yeah, it's crazy and yet she's still winning.

Kevin: Yeah

Raaaaachel: Yeah, new dog mom too.

Kevin: ⁓ yeah, I did see that.

Raaaaachel: Okay, and then one more thing. ⁓ kind of ties into a, I guess sort of a questionable call of the episode, but I wanna share this little Twitter interaction with you all, which you may or ⁓ not have seen yesterday, but let me just share this. ⁓ What you're looking at right now is a little interaction between ⁓ Miles David, who is another tennis personality. He'll give takes and videos when we're not about the scene. Kind of like Christian Court, they've done some videos together, that's how heard about him. And then Brett Haber, who is a commentator on Tennis Channel. You've probably heard his voice, maybe didn't know it was him. But during the Davidivis Trakina match, He was playing Mikkelsen, was it? Something like that. ⁓ But there's a stat that Miles, ⁓ okay. Yeah. So of course, Vintage Fakina is like the punching bag of the ATP and ⁓ hasn't won a title, but there was a stat. Lost 13 ATP tour matches after being up match point against its opponent. And then Brett Haver chimes in basically saying, where did you get that? How do you find that out? And then Miles admitted,

Kevin: know learner he'll play learner ten yeah

Raaaaachel: you brought it up during the televised broadcast and tennis channel. Does that help cure your curiosity? And then Brett Haver says, might be nice to cite your source. The research doesn't do itself. Okay, there's more to this, but what are your thoughts on this particular stat and the issue that Brett has with it?

Kevin: I mean the status crazy. At some point he probably is a little bit in his head now when it comes to matter. As for the tweets, let's be honest, Brett Haber is getting that statistic from someone in the studio. He is not pulling that for himself. So, the fact he's mad that this guy, Miles David, didn't tag him, Brett Haber should tag the guy that gave him the stats. So that's my two cents on

Raaaaachel: Well, that's what you would think. And a lot of people did point that out, but as we will see, he claims differently. ⁓ basically, this particular stat, it's like a little specific, but it's not hard to get, I guess. It's not common knowledge, but it's just ⁓ like a numerical fact, right? Based on history. But let's see what happens next. So ⁓ the last thing that Brett said was the research doesn't do itself, right? So then Miles said, I'll keep that in mind next time I'm casually watching something on my TV and decide to share what stuck out to me from the coverage, just like the other hundreds of thousands of people who probably heard the same thing. So, you know, he's being a little snarky, right? But like, Brett was also being a little salty. So then he says, Brett says, Your snarky reply aside, your initial post made it seem like it was a fact. You personally discovered it's common courtesy to credit the source unless courtesy is not your thing. so here he's doubling down on the fact that Brett, or Brett's saying, I came up with this fact, or I discovered this fact and anyone who mentions it must credit me as the source. ⁓ It's a little tricky here because like, let's say like photography, right? If I take a picture posted on Instagram and someone like screenshots my picture and posts it, but doesn't mention me, that can be an instance of plagiarism or like copyright infringement because it's my photo, my intellectual property. But is a fact like this, factoid intellectual property? ⁓ Not so sure about that. And in fact, you could even say that

Kevin: ⁓ I would say no.

Raaaaachel: This fact belongs to ADF. So why are we not crediting him? I mean, we do kind of, but. ⁓ So after all this, Miles says, why puts Narcanist aside when that's what started this interaction? And it did not make it seem like that. I didn't credit it as something only I exclusively discovered. Furthermore, did you yourself crunch the numbers on that? So that's what we're wondering, right? If so, congratulations. If not, why the fuss?

Kevin: Yeah Yeah.

Raaaaachel: So then Brett says, yes, I myself crunched those numbers. So he's saying no one else said news and information. I somehow found it myself. Imagine that doing your own research and no, I wasn't being snarky. On the contrary, was being quite, sorry, I was quite bluntly calling you out for plagiarizing someone else's work and failing to cite a source. Something that is common courtesy among journalists and you know, just thoughtful people instead of owning it. Now you're being a dick. Whatever. Brett Haver. So, ⁓ interesting. He's saying that he came up with it himself. And then now he's saying ⁓ he wasn't being snarky. He was bluntly calling you out. So I feel there's a few things here. First of all, it needs to be said that Miles David, to Nintendo, is not some average guy. He's like kind of in the industry influencer type person. So it's not like Brett Haber is going after some fan. But to me, it does seem a little ridiculous that he's like going this hard at him over this particular fact.

Kevin: Yeah, I think both sides just made the thing way bigger than it needed to be. Like he could, if let's be like, Miles David could have just said the first part, you brought it up during the televised channel, the broadcast on tennis channel. He could have just said that part. And Brett would have responded probably a little nicer, hopefully. But because he decides to end that snarky question at the end, he ignites the fire. And then, and then as we go on through the sheets, you see like the tweets, ⁓ Brett also. They both are guilty of making it worse and worse but there are both moments they could have easily stopped it. I think both are a fault. ⁓

Raaaaachel: Yeah. And like, it's kind of Miles' personality, right? He claims to be like providing colorful commentary. So it's like, it's kind of refreshing in a sense. Like it's not just some boring, you know, like tweets ⁓ saying what's going on, but he adds his own flavor to it. And I feel, feel like it's kind of funny. I find it pretty funny personally. ⁓ So of course he would get into it. And after all this, ⁓ so I posted screenshots on Reddit, r slash tennis. And let me sort comments by oldest, old. So I posted it immediately. I cited my source, Miles David, and then ⁓ originally, Brett Haber, Tennis Channel. And then someone was reminded of this office quote, the Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott. And then someone else, ⁓ this is also very funny, ⁓ the Cocoa Van De Wey interaction.

Kevin: Yeah, yep, yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Raaaaachel: Someone else posted a subsequent tweet by Miles David for the next match, the Sinner match, about Lerner, right? Yannick Sinner, who's currently playing Lerner Tien for a spot in the Indian Wells semifinals, has won 19 straight matches against left-handed opponents on the UTV Tour. And then he says, Brett Haber on tennis channel. So he's fully leaning into like, ⁓ I must cite everything now because Brett told me. ⁓

Kevin: Yeah

Raaaaachel: And so then people were just like taking the joke and running with it. became a meme. Like not everything is source Brett Haber on tennis channel,