this story ends in light

majorly dropped the ball this year wrt getting tickets for indian wells... i think we just forgot about the whole thing until end of january rolled around and one of us was like. Wait... did we get indian wells tickets this year yet? which is to say all of the normal face value priced stadium tickets were long sold out by then and we had to settle for grounds passes, (which are still not bad). the crowd gets worse and worse every year but such is the nature of the most accessible tennis tournament on tour in california, especially on that first weekend. i will say it was probably one of the least enjoyable iw experiences ive had so far due to the overwhelming hordes of people + preferring the previous day's lineup (alcaraz, rybakina, etc) but i still had a decent time.

2026 - champions: jannik sinner / aryna sabalenka

dillydallied a ton at the practice courts this year bc we didn't get stadium seats, but honestly i would say it was pretty worth it to see the big names quite close to us. apparently rybakina showed up in the fanzone but i didn't knowwwwwww. T_T my fishbird... i missed out on seeing her but i also didn't even know there was a schedule for fanzone that's my fault my bad.

practice courts: carlos alcaraz, aryna sabalenka, stefanos tsitsipas, novak djokovic, eva lys, priscilla hon

• passed by prihon doing rallies and caught the tail end of eva lys' practice session she is sooo pretty. and then unintentionally got distracted by these shirtless doubles players showing off in the practice court behind her like idk it was giving male model? i have never seen aesthetically pleasing muscle. um anyway then i headed to pc1 for carlos ofc only to find the pc1 stands already packed. right next to it was pc2 wtih popyrin there and he is tall as fuck omg. stayed for carlos to dick around a bit and then finally lock in to practice passing shot returns with no bounce like he is actually insane?? litr so dogs so puppycaraz...
• tsitsipas and djokovic came out after on pc1 and we thought they were going to practice doubles with hitting partners but that didn't end up happening? it seemed like djoko only wanted to hit with tsitsipas lol. which was fine it was interesting to see and novak's playstyle is just so incredibly distinct. felt good to see goat doing goat things.
• sabalenka finished her execution match in the morning pretty swiftly and came out for a spin on pc2, messed with tsitsidjoko a bit and showed off her sparkly 10 carat engagement ring and generally was just having fun and playing.
• the entire time carlos was practicing on court 1, vacherot and rinderknech were practicing doubles with hitting partners and it was actually so entertaining.. they beat meddytien in straights later in the day so clearly they were on their a-game.

SINGLES R3 / MEN'S DOUBLES R4

• A. DAVIDOVICH-FOKINA (18) v. J. MENSIK (12) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2

watched this entire match from beginning to end and i'm ngl i was rooting for mensik despite the egregious signs of gamesmanship idkkk i cannot help rooting for evil attacka redbull athletes i think. foki had a ton of crowd support and mensik tall ass was relying a ton on his serve but it wasn't usual levels of reliable. it seemed like he was dealing with whatever virus was going around iw that weekend but also i think he definitely played up the fatigue. the umpire was crazy lenient that match and mensik fully took advantage of that. alas pure-of-heart foki prevailed against him in the end but it was honestly a very entertaining match throughout... lowkey i think men's tennis has more drama than women's lol.

• A. ANISIMOVA (6) v. E. RADACANU (25) 6-1, 6-1

an absolute beatdown in every sense of the word. double breadsticked in front of god and everyone on court 2 oh emma... she got that million dollar uniqlo deal and was like deuces :peacesignemoji: i did only catch the tail end of it but that second set. yikes. amanda was also just playing extremely well, crazy first serve percentage, all the returns were textbook perfect. 2 vs 21 winners. emma really has no tools in her kit to counter iejsldf my girl washed asf damn

• J. SINNER (2) v. D. SHAPOVOLOV 6-3, 6-2

had to watch the jannik sinner special x my favorite backhand on tour... unfortunately for dennis it was just clinical on sinner's side though shapo also did fumble saving so many break points. i suppose i should just be grateful he wasn't taken to the bakery that day. a couple of pretty aces for the aesthetic.

• L. TIEN (25) v. B. SHELTON (8) 7(7-3)-6, 4-6, 6-3

unfortunately shelton was clearly affected by illness but big ups to him for pushing through until the end. i just remember continuously checking in on this game like "damn theyre still not done yet?" but ofc the first set being a tiebreak already set the tone for the match. was honestly doubting whether tien was going to be able to make it to his scheduled doubles with meddy a mere 2ish hours later, but i guess being a 20 year old with boundless energy is difference.

• A. RINDERKNECH / V. VACHEROT (5) v. D. MEDVEDEV / L. TIEN 6-2, 6-3

could only really catch a tiny bit of this before leaving but it was really so fun to see meddytien synergy by which i mean they are so clearly not doubles players. vacherot and rinderknech won pretty handedly but i did enjoy the interax on court...