Right now, Alexander Popp and Mark Philippousis are tied 6-6 in the fifth set of their quarter final. ESPN had to cut away at noon to give NBC their live coverage.
Are they showing the live, high quality, intense men’s match?
No. They are showing the already completed, blow-out match between Serena Williams and Justine Henin-Hardenne.
I’m now having to watch the men’s match unravel on the web, with live updates.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Let me take this a bit further.
Men’s tennis is better than women’s right now
The top four seeds in the women’s game made it to the semifinals, while all 8 of the men’s final 8 had never won a grand slam before. The men’s game is deeper. There are really only 5 great women’s players right now(Williams’, Heni-Hardenne, Clisters, and maybe Capriati).
The men’s game is so deep, just about any of the top 32 seeds could genuinely win. Llayton Hewitt lost in the first round…to a great, unseeded player!
I love women’s tennis, don’t get me wrong. Men’s is, at this moment in history(though not always), the better game and should get way more coverage.
Not entirely. I was a huge Martina Hingis fan…for less than tennis-oriented reasons. Then again, I feel she was the last great pure tennis player on the women’s side. After her, the power game has dominated, forcing her into early retirement.
But even if people do watch women’t tennis for the girls, have you seen Justine Henin-Hardenne and Serena Williams? Not exactly the hottest girls on the tour.
Simple reason why NBC was showing the women’s match and not the men’s-
Serena Williams is American. The mens’ match features an Australian and a German. Bottom line is NBC thinks an American audience wants to see American players. simple as that.
It’s the same reason why we in the UK had to suffer the dreary Henman/Grosjean match instead of the vastly superior Popp/Philippoussis one. :rolleyes: Yeah just because that fist clenching quarter final losing dullard happens to be from the same country as me I really want to look at his boring match and miss the better one. Pah.
(I don’t like Henman, boring fist clenching humourless dullard. I’m glad he lost!)
I disagree. In womens tennis you tend to see a lot more good ralleys which, for me, is what tennis all about.
I fail to see how any game with Mark Philippousis in it can be anything more than a monotonous slugfest with Philippousis serving ace after ace after ace because, well, that’s all he can do and his opponent snatching the occasional point here and there when he manages to connect with Philippoussis’s serve and thus force him to actually play some tennis, which is one of the many things he can’t do.
For the good of the game I hope Phillipoussis, Ivanisevic and all those other “players” whose game revolves solely around the ability to smack one supersonic serve after another, simultaneously develop carpal tunnel syndrome as soon as possible and let the skilful players have a chance. And I certainly hope Phillipoussis lost this particular match.
Harsh, but true.
Oh, and I’m so glad Henman’s lost. Now we’re mercifully free of the “Tiger Tim” hype for another year.
Look, the Williams sisters fascinate me. I so desparately want them to continue their domination. I don’t even understand why, but I find them exrtremely sexy as well. I think it has something to do with an underdog complex. I watch the women’s tennis, but have no interest in the mens. Go figure.
Sorry, lads, my mother’s glued to Wimbledon all week, and I know she doesn’t find either Williams sister at all sexy. Then again, apparently your mileage varies!
Wow. NBC was showing a tape of a finished boring match while an interesting match in its final set was going on live and you decided to carve out a rant that compares men’s and women’s tennis
Come on, the women’s match was great. Although it coulda gone for another set. Justina disappointed me. (But I knew Serena would win.)
Slight hijack–what was the deal with Serena’s big hoop earrings? Early in the match I noticed one, because it sorta flipped up over her ear (and they were meant to be noticed anyway) but at that point, and for the next several points, it seemed to me she was only wearing one, in her right ear. Suddenly, mysteriously, she was wearing two!
Slight hijack #2–the commentators made some references to something that happened between Justina and Serena at the French, which J. won. I was apparently doing meaningful work of some kind or another during the French and missed it but it sounded like Justina did something underhanded in order to win the match. But the commentators never said what. (Okay, I came in and out. Meaningful work, etc.)
Serena’s earring fell out during the match. She later found it on the court and put it back on.
She also claimed that during the French Henin-Hardenne called for a time out and then refused to acknowledge it. It was one of the reasons that Serena barely shook her hand when she was defeated.
It was a bit more than ‘claimed’. Not only did they show the clip, but Henin-Hardenne admitted it, and said that she didn’t own up to it because she wasn’t asked. Not very sportmanlike.
I was very pissed about this too. Although I’d refused to look at web coverage so I could experience the match as if it was live, I was pissed about the stupid decision. Likewise, I was annoyed that ESPN cut off the match, and then NBC didn’t even resume their coverage immediately. They ran the stupid opening montage-y thing, and then they went to the studio. And didn’t they show Roddick’s match (also a blowout that had already ended) before they finished Philippoussis/Popp? That kind of play may not be for everyone, but it WAS a tense match.
I like both Serena and Henin-Hardenne, but I enjoyed seeing Serena so pumped. She kicked some ass. I hope Venus is healthy enough to make the final as interesting as it should be.
I’m a geek - that is, I watch women’s tennis because I like tennis - but I think Serena is a good-looking woman.
Clijsters has had an excellent year, but I’m starting to wonder about her ability to win big matches. She was bad against Henin-Hardenne in the French Open final, and (though I like Venus) she should’ve won the match today. Venus was hurt and she had a break in the second set. I think she really choked today, badly.
The other three (Venus, Serena, and Henin-Hardenne) definitely have the goods mentally.
Capriati is one of the best players, but she’s not in the top echelon, as she knows she can’t beat the Williams sisters, Serena in particular (she’s lost 9 in a row to Serena; in the last four, she’s won the first set and lost the match). Serious mental block going on.
What the fuck is it with this Wimbledon crap to begin with? This shit is getting more air time than the fucking Superbowl. It’s played all freakin’ day, then they have the nerve to interrupt Jay Leno for highlights, EVERYNIGHT? WTF is that shit? Can’t they just put the fucking scores on the bottom of the screen on ESPN like they do with all other sports? Fucking Wimbledon. What a crock of shit this is. It’s fucking TENNIS people!! How many people really like this shit? Fine if you like it, but how important is it to interrupt night programming to get highlights? Can’t they just do like other sports and show it, oh I don’t know, during the fucking news with the other sports?
Not really. I ranted about the coverage, then took it a bit further, thus manifesting my temper tantrum fully.
What’s so confusing about that?
The time when I liked women’s tennis more was when it still had the purity of tennis, with less power and more suaveness. It was what separated it from the men’s game, which became about power in the post-wood racquet era.
Oh, and Elena Dementieva is the best looking girl on tour!
Amen, Ben Hicks, amen. I kind of wish they’d go back to wood racquets because men’s tennis has turned into a serving contest. Booooring. Agassi is one of the few men remaining who can return those huge serves, but (alas) he’s in the twilight of his career. I long for the glory days when we were entertained for hours watching McEnroe and Borg duke it out with volleys and lobs and slices and an occasional great serves at key moments. No mas, mis amigos, no mas.
Women’s tennis is kind of at an impasse now IMO because Serena Williams is so dominant. She is just so physically impressive (her biceps are bigger than most men’s, for pete’s sake) and she’s so incredible at running down balls that other mortal women just don’t have a prayer against her. She’s still a joy to watch, but like the French audience, I always end up rooting for the underdog to win. Go Venus!
John McEnroe has offered to do a Billie Jean King/whatshisname (why does his name escape me?) redux against Serena Williams, and I’d love to see that match. It’s perhaps a dream that Williams could take on an Andy Roddick but I bet she could hold her own against some of the men out there.
Oh, and as far as the complaint against Wimbledon interrupting your programming, I say boo hoo. Wimbledon lasts 2 weeks. I can’t watch my big screen t.v. most nights of the YEAR cause my husband is camped out in front of it watching one of the two most boring sports ever aired – basketball and baseball.
Steeeee-rike! Someone wake me up when something actually happens!
