Branstine gets WC into Indian Wells mixed

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The second edition of the mysterious Indian Wells mixed-doubles event starts on Tuesday.

And the great news is that Carson Branstine, the southern California native who has represented Canada since 2017 and is making moves in the pros after a standout college career, is in the draw.

There is a total of $360,000 US up for grabs in this invitational, with $100,000 to the winning pair.

Branstine, 24, will team up with 36-year-old Nikola Mektic (No. 12 in the world in men’s doubles but a former No. 1) in a 12-team exhibition mixed event that begins with three matches on Stadium 6 Tuesday.

Also in action is Cana-Kiwi Erin Routliffe, who is the No. 2 seed with New Zealand’s Michael Venus and who was upset in the women’s doubles in the second round.

Here’s the draw.

A few singles players in

Most of the participants are doubles players, but there are a few fun adds from the singles side – two of them squaring off in the first round.

Early men’s singles upset victims Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud (with countrywoman Ulrikke Eikeri) and Andrey Rublev (with American doubles specialist Nicole Melichar-Martinez) are in. So is Russia’s Diana Shnaider, the No. 13 seed who lost to Belinda Bencic in singles on Monday and also in the first round of women’ doubles. Liudmila Samsonova is also in.

It’s too bad fellow Russians Rublev and Shnaider didn’t team up. That would be a hoot.

Great idea in theory

It’s a great idea in theory, given the unique circumstances surrounding the Sunshine Double.

Many of the players set up in the desert, arriving early and often renting houses instead of staying in hotels. And because of the plentiful practice courts (and golf opportunities, and chill atmosphere), many stay around to practice rather than head immediately to the next stop in Miami – where it’s a lot more humid, and far less convenient to get to the site from the hotel.

The other thing is that the draws drop off … quickly during these two-week events. And even with a junior tournament going on on the back courts, there simply are a lot fewer matches outside the ticketed stadium courts for the fans to enjoy.

Except here’s the thing: it basically happens under a veil of secrecy. There’s nothing on the tournament app about it – unless you dig deep to the very bottom of the draws scroll, past the junior doubles, to find it.

Crickets last year

A year ago, they held this exhibition event for the first time.

And when we went to check it out, even the volunteer ushers hadn’t known what was happening. They knew there were going to be matches on Stadium 4 that day – the second Wednesday – but they didn’t even know what kind of matches.

We didn’t hear any announcements. It seemed like no one on the grounds even knew what was happening on Stadium 4, right next to the two biggest practice courts.

It wasn’t quite the “Tiebreak Tens” event that opened the event, a star-studded Tuesday night affair.

The players – well, some players; we heard it was only the men – received an email from tournament director Tommy Haas on the Tuesday night inviting them to play in the event. No doubt some who might have played had already left town.

It’s possible they realized that they needed a second match for a Stadium 1 session later in the week, and so they scrambled for an idea.

And so, Aussie Matthew Ebden and Storm Hunter, along with Ena Shibahara and Joe Salisbury, basically played before friends and family in an eight-team tourney.

Here’s what it looked like.

There were some fun teams, actually: Caroline Garcia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, then-lovebirds Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac, lesser-known lovebirds Desirae Krawczyk and Andrew Harris, and Taylor Townsend and Jackson Withrow.

Ebden and Hunter were the eventual champions.

Growth potential

The purse was $150,000 last year, so they’ve more than doubled it.

But it didn’t turn out the way this columnist at the local newspaper hoped it might – with all-star teams like Djokovic-Osaka.

They clearly must have gotten going on it earlier this year; the presence of Rublev and Ruud through the second week isn’t something that happens last minute.

You have to start somewhere although even with the increased prize money you’d still have to convince the top singles players to commit to remaining in the desert until at least Saturday, wth the final being played on Friday. That’s definitely not enough money to convince the top guns to change their plans.

The opening matches on Wednesday are being played on the more intimate Court 6. And you would expect the one involving Rublev and Ruud to be very well attended. Let’s hope they make announcements over the public-address people to let people on site know.

But, hey, it could eventually turn into a thing. The logistics of the Sunshine Double make it probably the only place you could really do it – even if these expanded, joint Masters 1000 could really use some additional content in the last 4-5 days.

When you look at the schedule for the second Thursday a year ago, all there was were the two women’s doubles semifinals along with the four men’s singles quarterfinals.

And it’ll be a fun experience for Branstine, too.

And she’ll earn a minimum of $5,000 US just for playing which – for a player without major sponsors who is trying to break through and has earned less than $13,000 in 2025 – two-thirds of that making the final at a WTA 125 in Cancún last month – it’s a big help.