Umbrella-Gate: There Was A Big Controversy At The Rainy Indian Wells Open

There was some controversy during Saturday's match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the Indian Wells Open, but it has nothing to do with tennis and everything to do with umbrellas.

Sinner and Alcaraz were facing off in a semifinal match when the sky opened up and started dumping rain on the court.

Oh well, it happens. However, instead of booking it for the locker room both players sat courtside and waited for the rain to pass.

Now here's where things get controversial. Two ball girls were on hand to assist in the umbrella-ing, which was approached in two vastly different ways by both of the players.

First, Sinners' approach, which involved letting the girl pop open the umbrella, but he took the more chivalrous approach, by holding it for himself and the ball girl.

As for Alcaraz, he let the ball girl hold the umbrella — which I would argue is part of her job — and that raised some eyebrows.

Tennis fans seemed to be divided on this one, but most seemed to be supportive of Sinner holding the umbrella.

Was that nice of Sinner? It sure looked that way, but do you know what he was doing by handling the umbrella? He was controlling the umbrella.

What does that mean? It means he is giving himself optimal positioning under the umbrella while the ball girl's New Balances get splashed.

Meanwhile, Alcaraz lets the ball girl hold the umbrella, giving her control and agency in this situation.

Maybe, Alcaraz wasn't being a douche, he was being progressive (which, in fairness, usually comes with a side of douche).

And it turns out that he may have made the right choice because guess who won the match? Carlos Alcaraz.

Could it have been because his arm wasn't sore from holding an umbrella for the duration of a rain delay? Probably.

And unfortunately, as nice of a gesture as that was by Jannick Sinner — who seems like a good dude — he learned an inconvenient truth about Indian Wells: nice guys finish last.