Tennis Chatter

As I was reading through political news today, I came upon this blog article: Washington Post notices Ron Paul. If you’re not familiar with with this developing story, I’ll summarize it pretty simply. Internet blogs and networks haven’t been happy with the coverage mainstream media outlets have been providing this presidential election. They claim that outlets such as MSNBC and CNN only offer coverage on clearly recognizable candidates such as Obama, Clinton, Giuliani, and McCain and ignore smaller candidates such as Paul (despite his massive popularity on the internet). You might be asking yourself what this has to do with tennis. The television schedule for Wimbledon recently came out and and looks something like this:

Wimbledon TV Schedule [ESPN2-NBC]

All times EST All live unless stated
24 June 2.30PM Wimbledon Preview Show [ESPN2]
25 June 7AM-5PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
26 June 2AM-4AM Wimbledon Day 1 Highlights [ESPN2]
26 June 7AM-5PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
27 June 1AM-4AM Wimbledon Day 2 Highlights [ESPN2]
27 June 7AM-5PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
27 June 7PM-10PM Wimbledon Day 3 Highlights [ESPN2]
28 June 7AM-5PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
28 June 9PM-12AM Wimbledon Day 4 Highlights [ESPN2]
29 June 7AM-5PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
29 June 7.30PM-10PM Wimbledon Day 5 Highlights [ESPN2]
30 June 8AM-12PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
30 June 3PM-7PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [ESPN2]
30 June 8PM-10PM Wimbledon Day 6 Highlights [ESPN2]
01 July 12PM-3PM Wimbledon Early Rounds [NBC]
01 July 5PM-8PM Wimbledon Day 7 Highlights [ESPN2]
02 July 7AM-10AM Wimbledon Last 16 [ESPN2]
02 July 12PM-3PM Wimbledon Last 16 [NBC]
02 July 1PM-6PM Wimbledon Last 16 [ESPN2]
02 July 7.30PM-10PM Wimbledon Day 8 Highlights [ESPN2]
03 July 7AM-10AM Wimbledon Last 16 [ESPN2]
03 July 10AM-1PM Wimbledon Last 16 [NBC]
03 July 1PM-5PM Wimbledon Women’s Quarterfinals [ESPN2]
03 July 7.30PM-9.30PM Wimbledon Day 8 Highlights [ESPN2]
04 July 7AM-10AM Wimbledon Men’s Quarterfinals [ESPN2]
04 July 10AM-1PM Wimbledon Men’s Quarterfinals [NBC]
04 July 1PM-5PM Wimbledon Men’s Quarterfinals [ESPN2]
04 July 7PM-10PM Wimbledon Day 9 Highlights [ESPN2]
05 July 7AM-12PM Wimbledon Women’s Semifinals [ESPN2]
05 July 10AM-1PM Wimbledon Women’s Semifinals [NBC]
05 July 10PM-12AM Wimbledon Day 10 Highlights [ESPN2]
06 July 7AM-12PM Wimbledon Men’s Semifinals [ESPN2]
06 July 12PM-5PM Wimbledon Men’s Semifinals [NBC]
07 July 12.30AM-3AM Wimbledon Day 11 Highlights [ESPN2]
07 July 9AM-2PM Wimbledon Women’s Final [NBC]
07 July 2PM-3PM Sportscenter at Wimbledon [ESPN2]
08 July 9AM-3PM Wimbledon Men’s Finals [NBC]
08 July 3PM-4PM Sportscenter at Wimbledon [ESPN]

If you have cable, it seems like you will have access to significant coverage. However, this isn’t usually what happens. Although ESPN2 and NBC have scheduled in hours of television time, the majority of it will be matches of Roddick, the Williams sisters, Federer, Sharapova, and Nadal. If you look at MSNBC’s website, their “analyst�?, Bud Collins has written six articles on the front page, all about those players. It’s simply ridiculous that in a sport with as many talented players as tennis, MSNBC doesn’t have time to cover more than five or six of them. And its not even like they are the best players, Venus certainly isn’t doing too hot lately. Where is the article about Djokovic’s semifinal appearance at the Roland Garros and his fast rise in the rankings? He is one of the young stars in tennis, yet the best the mainstream public gets to read is how there were “positive�? signs in Roddick’s loss. Sure, he is American, as is NBC; but it isn’t doing the sport of tennis any favors when the performance of great, young players get ignored.

Tennis has always been about the immense variety of players and styles exist. Some of the most exciting matches don’t appear on center court between Roddick and Federer (in fact those matches are generally boring); but between a qualifier and some low ranked player you’ve never heard of. The public misses out on all of these because, whenever they turn on their television, all they get to see is Venus Williams grunting up a fury, as she loses in straight sets, in an early round, with a record number of unforced errors. To top that off, we then get to see the replays all day long, hearing about how much of an upset it was. The final straw is when you go online and get to read how there is still hope for her.

Simply put, tennis has the same problem as politics. Only the mainstream players are covered (Roddick, Sharapova); while some of the lesser known players, who add variety to the sport (Baghdatis, Ancic) are ignored until they make it to the semifinals or finals. Until NBC and ESPN2 take notes from the Washington Post and provide real coverage, I would suggest you purchase a subscription to Wimbledon Live. They provide streaming coverage of all matches, not just American players, or well known players with massive endorsement contracts (Sharapova).