It’s time for pickleball! I spent two days at The Owl APP Newport Beach Open this year, watching the Men’s Singles and Men’s Doubles matches. I was very excited to watch the games and see what sponsors were at the tournament!
Men’s Singles Day
The tournament was held at The Tennis & Pickleball Club at Newport Beach, where there is a parking lot shared with some office buildings. Before heading over there, I was told that APP had secured an overflow parking lot with a shuttle to take you to the venue between 9am-9pm if the main lot is full. The overflow parking lot is 4 minutes (driving) from the main lot, and 21 minutes if you were to walk. Thinking that the main lot would be full, I drove straight to the overflow parking.
The overflow parking lot was pretty empty, and I only saw one other human in sight. Maybe there isn’t as many people attending the tournament than they expected, I thought. I decided to drive to the main lot to take a look. I didn’t want to be the only car parking in the overflow lot if there are still empty spaces in the main lot!
I got to the main lot and drove straight to the back. There were some open spaces! I even got to park under a tree for a bit of shade. I was glad I decided to drive to the main lot. I walked to the entrance and showed the volunteer my ticket. They gave me a wristband for the day.
It was just before 10am, so I was able to grab a seat in the general admission area by the Championship Court while I ate my banh mi for breakfast. This area was shaded, which was perfect for the hot day. As more and more people arrived, it was hard to watch the game on the court since a lot of people were sitting on tall stools and some were even standing on top of the fire pit to see, blocking the view even more.
Whenever it was my friend’s turn to play, I would go over to the court to watch. He always ended up on a court in the back though, so it was impossible to hear what the score was.
The games were intense. Sometimes the score would be at zero even after many, many turns. Sometimes the opponent would hit the ball from one side of the court to the other, making you run back and forth over and over again until you missed the shot. I would hate playing singles.
Halfway through the day, I checked out the Sponsor Village. It was a small area that took up four courts. Here were some of the sponsors:
- AARP California – In addition to handing out red pickleballs, they also had a photobooth with props!
- Fortune Tire – There were quite a few different swag at this booth – spin the wheel to see what you land on!
- GOOD IDEA – What a good idea it was to get a can of ice cold GOOD IDEA on such a hot day!
- OWL – Test out some of their paddles, or grab one of their fans shaped like a pickleball paddle!
- Partake Brewing – Not only can you get a can of non-alcoholic, low calorie brews, you can also get a tote bag!
- The Botanist – If you are able to bounce the pickleball 60 times on the paddle within 22 seconds, you receive a pickleball paddle cover!
There were also a few water stations for you to refill your bottle, in addition to snacks for the players. Besides the matches and the sponsors, I was very impressed with the restroom. The restroom looked clean and smelled fresh, even with so many people at the tournament! Although there were only two stalls, the line for the restroom did not take long, which is definitely a plus!
Towards the end of the first day, I headed to the championship court again. It was full of people, smelled like sweat and plastic, and felt extra stuffy despite being outdoors. We waited and waited for the next court assignment. Finally, the text with the court assignment came.
The last Men’s Singles match I watched was such a close game. The opponent was not doing so well in the beginning, but something must have clicked because he suddenly started getting more points. By the time this match ended, it was dinner time.
Men’s Doubles Day
I started off the day by eating a big breakfast: pho. Before heading to the tournament, I also stopped by Costco to buy a chicken bake and salad. Food at the tournament was very expensive, so I wanted to make sure I have enough food to not have to buy food there!
There was no doubt that there would be even more people at the doubles tournament than the singles tournament – but I still headed to the main lot first. Apparently, there is no shuttle from the overflow parking today! Not only would you need to walk 21 minutes in the hot sun, but there is also a slight incline. It didn’t make sense to me why there would be no shuttle on the day when more people will likely be parking in the overflow parking lot. I can’t imagine the players having to go through that long walk while trying to save energy for the tournament.
I was extremely lucky when I got to the parking lot. I was able to find someone who was leaving and grabbed their spot! The person leaving even asked me how many times I had to circle around the lot before finding the spot – they said they had to circle it for 10 minutes.
I showed my ticket again at the front, and got a new wristband. Today, instead of finding a seat by the championship court, I got a seat by some trees. It was much better with the breeze and shade!
The doubles matches were much more fun to watch. For the singles matches, it was tiring to even watch the players run back and forth on a full court. It was very cool to see how different partners would strategize based on who is better on each side of the court. There were also a lot more spectators cheering for their friends too.
Disappointment
As a spectator, I was at the tournament to watch the matches and enjoy the games. I am not the one standing on the court and determining if the ball is ‘in’ or ‘out’, especially if the ball is close to the boundary line. However, out of all the matches, I do have to say that I was very disappointed in one of the players, T. Harmon, in one of the matches I watched for several reasons:
- The player called one of the shots as ‘out’ when the ball was very clearly ‘in’.
- The player smirked after calling the shot as ‘out’.
- The player and his partner were already winning 8-0, so it was unnecessarily to lie about the shot. The team they were playing against did end up winning 6 more points after that shot, with the final score of 11-6.
I was very disappointed to see that a player would intentionally lie about a shot just to win a game. It was unfair to the other team and it only made it worse when he smirked after. I also noticed that the team’s cheerleaders cheered for every point that this team had made except for this point, possibly because they also saw what I saw. If this player moves on to win more matches, I hope that he will make line calls more fairly and only call it ‘out’ when it is out.
Overall
Overall, I had a great time hanging out with my friends and watching them play. It makes me want to grab my paddle and start playing too! I hope to be back again next year for more pickleball!