We’ve been having some issues with pictures showing up in the emails. I called the hosting company for help with the problem. They said that the articles appear fine when viewing the website. The issue is not with the web hosting service but with the software I’m using to create and publish the articles (never mind it was the software that they recommended using).
The software for creating and publishing the articles is called WordPress. It is a public domain, community supported product. You can post your issue on a bulletin board and, if someone happens to see it and knows how to fix your issue, you may get some assistance. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.
I happen to know a little about programming and software development but the last thing I want to do is get down and dirty with this package. I may eventually have to do that but in the meantime I’m hoping that an update to the package will be posted and it will magically fix the issue. Here’s hoping. In the meantime here’s the link to the full article on the website.
Monday, March 7, 2022
Our plan was to spend the day visiting Palm Springs before settling into our AirBNB in Palm Desert. We drove around the town to get the lay of the land before deciding to park on the Main Street and go exploring. We didn’t know exactly what was there but we were expecting something very special. There were a lot of nice shops and a few galleries but from what we saw it would have been just about any other upscale town. We had coffee in a lovely French style cafe before heading out. We didn’t spend more than an hour and half there.
We checked into our AirBNB without issue and noticed that it was still quite early. We decided to head over to the tennis tournament and check things out. It was the first day of qualifying and there were a lot of big names on the schedule. We hadn’t actually planned on attending this day but we were glad we did. We saw several excellent qualifying matches including Catherine McNally, Sara Erani and Christina McHale plus saw an incredible number of top players on the practice courts. It turned out to be a great day.
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Before heading over to the tournament this morning we went in search of a local coffee shop. We eschewed StarBucks and found an interesting place called Indian Wells Coffee. It turned out to be a great find. The place was packed with locals standing in line waiting to get it. When we finally got a table we realized that the cafe was also populated with many famous tennis players and their entourages. We sat there for almost an hour and watched as quite a few players came and went. We saw Feliciano Lopez (who we’d seen play the previous evening), his entourage and family, Annette Kontaveit, Vera Zvonareva and Alison Van Uytvanck to name just a few. As we were leaving we crossed paths with Maria Sakari, one of the few players that is a lot smaller in person than she appears on TV. We immediately resolved to come back every morning.
We spent most of the day at the practice courts watching some of our favorite players. It was a lot more interesting than some of the matches that had been scheduled for that day. At night, before going home, we watched Christopher O’Connell win a singles qualifying match against Kevin Anderson.
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
We got to the complex about an hour before the matches started and headed straight over to the practice courts. We saw Coco Gauff, Rafael Nadal with Carlos Alcarez and Daniel Medvedev with Karen Khatchanov. The stands for the practice courts were setup so that you could get really close to the players. On the adjacent court we saw Victoria Azarenka, Francis Tiafoe and Garbine Mugarutha. We stuck around for a while because the next practice session featured Stephanos Tsitsipas with Matteo Berrettini. They were hitting the ball so hard we thought they’d break their rackets. Towards the end of their session Emma Raducanu showed up on the adjacent court. Later that day we watched Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula win their first round doubles match.
Thursday, March 10, 2022
We went back to Indian Wells Coffee and played name the tennis player. It was harder than you think because many of them were not outfitted the way you’d normally see them on court. There was one young lady that we were almost certain was a tennis player but even with going through the list of players names and pictures on the Indian Wells App we couldn’t identify her. It nagged us for a while.
When we were ready to leave we picked up our trash and headed over to a garbage bin. Who else but Madison Keys and her boyfriend, Bjorn Fratangelo, sat down at our table. On the way out I walked back over to the table. Keys noticed me coming her way and looked decidedly uncomfortable. I said, “you guys were great last night”. I got no response. She looked very frightened. I guess I’m pretty scary even after I’ve had my morning coffee.
On our way to watch Fabio Fogninni in his first round singles match we got a good glimpse of Maria Sakari and Rafael Nadal on the practice courts. It was hard to tear ourselves away. After Fogninni won in his usual, flamboyant style, we watched Sofia Kenin and Alison Riske dispatch Anett Kontaveit and Elena Rybakina in a very entertaining match. We stayed right we were because the next match saw Coco Gauff and Catherine McNally beat Lauren Davis (our mystery woman from the coffee shop that morning) and Christina McHale.
Friday, March 11, 2022
Once again we got there early and headed towards the practice courts where we saw Naomi Osaka. She had been assigned a court in the far corner. It was roped off so no spectators could get too close. No doubt she’d requested some privacy because of her ongoing issues.
We passed another practice court where we spotted an unbelievably tall man. From a distance we couldn’t identify him but when we got closer we saw it was John Isner who was practicing with his doubles partner Jack Sock. The two were clowning around more than they were practicing but we saw both of them warming up their serves. That was a sight to see. They were the eventual men’s doubles winners this year.
We found a good seat at one of the smaller stadiums. Two doubles matches were scheduled and although we had no objection to seeing the first one we were really only interested in the second one. The first match was Karatsev and Rublev vs Bautista Agut and Davidovich Fokina. I assumed that since Bautista Agut was a real veteran he’d dominate and his team would quickly win. Boy was I wrong. The other three player were youngsters with hard hitting ground strokes and an amazing ability to track down balls. It was an incredibly entertaining match – perhaps the best match we’d see all week.
Bautista Agut and Davidovich Fokina took a very tight first set. One of the main strategies employed by both sides was to take advantage of their opponents limited net skills and hit right at the net man. Missing these balls infuriated Rublev and he had several tantrums on the court. Nevertheless he and Karatsev played some amazing points to even the score at one set apiece. The third and deciding set was a 10 point tie breaker. This time Karatsev and Rublev ran away with it in decisive style. It was very entertaining.
The second match featured Golubev and Zverev vs Evans and Khachanov. Zverev dominated with his serve and showed surprisingly good net skills. Golubev and Evans, on opposite sides of the net, played way above our expectations. In the end Golubev and Zverev turned out to be too strong and they took the match in two sets.
The next match featured two of our favorites: Lopez and Tsitsipas vs Klasen and McClachlan. Lopez had been a little tentative playing singles the night before but today he was on his game. When you have someone like Tsitsipas backing you up it makes it a lot easier to go for your shots. The two of them played like a veteran team and put on an excellent display both from the backcourt and at the net. We had a good time watching them.
In the afternoon we decided that, since we’d paid a lot of money for seats in Stadium One, we should check it out. Our seats were in one of the higher tiers making it hard to get a good view of the action. I don’t see the value in building huge stadiums for tennis matches. I’d rather see the action on TV than watch from those heights. We watched for a little while as Muguruza pounded Riske. Muguruza won the first set at love and was up 4-0 when Alison finally won her first game. We decided to seek greener pastures. We were later shocked to find that Riske won that match in three sets.
We headed over to Stadium Two. We wanted to get there early because we knew that the coming doubles match would be very popular. When we got there we saw Mikhail Kukushkin playing Tommy Paul in round one singles action. It was a good match. Paul took him in three sets. By the end of the match there was standing room only in the stadium. Next up: Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis vs Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo. Dodig and Melo were a seasoned doubles team but Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were the Australian Open Champs. This was going to be fun.
The match didn’t disappoint. Kokkinakis can be rather mercurial on the court but he had no choice but to play the straight man for Kyrgios. I was impressed at how good a team the Aussies were. Kyrgios showcased his talent at the net by hitting all sorts of high quality, sharply angled volleys. Both teams played excellent doubles but in the end the Aussies were just too good. So, why were two very good teams playing against one another in the first round? Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were seeded as wild cards. It was an unfortunate pairing for Dodig and Melo because they make their living playing doubles and it’s very unusual for them to get knocked out in the first round. They were obviously upset at the result.
We stuck around for the last match of the day. It featured Madison Keys and Misaki Doi in first round singles action. Maddie played a high quality match and simply had too much power for Doi to handle.
The evening matches started at 6pm and 8pm. By the time the sun went down it got very cold, around 55 degrees F, and windy. After the first evening we learned to bring additional clothing for the night matches. One of our fellow attendees had a very creative solution. He wore his bathrobe to the evening match. We tried not to laugh as he walked to his seat in front of us. He also brought a cup of coffee and a hat. I think he enjoyed the match.