Schadenfreude: USA Network Coverage of US Open During Rain Delays

Cafe Society
1

It’s been raining for four solid days at the US Open and things are getting pretty desperate – so desperate that rebroadcasts of matches from previous years interspersed with shots of wet tennis courts isn’t doing it.

How desperate is it? Well, I’ve seen one announcer sitting in the bleachers trying to get the few fans around him to shift their eyes left and right as if they were watching a match. I’ve seen extensive coverage of John McEnroe lobbing balls into the grandstands from the court. And there’s been the “Mac Phone” where John McEnroe takes calls from tennis fans about whatever is on their minds, which is typically … not a hell of a lot.

But the best part of all is the desperate, fixed grins of the announcers as they stare at the camera and think … I got nothin’ here! Nothin! Oh, GOD when is the next commercial break?"

I guess this OP is misnamed, I’m not really ashamed at my pleasure in the desperation of the USA Network crew, I’m just kinda enjoying it.

2

Why the hell doesn’t the USTA build a retractable roof on the main stadiums?

3

Sounds about as exciting as if they were actually showing tennis.

Sorry. I’m not a tennis fan.

How is Rap like Porn? Both are better with the sound turned off.

4

Maybe USA could get the announcers to call episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger and Nash Bridges. Johnny Mac screaming, “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! WHAT, ARE YOU BLIND!” during the bland plot twists and badly choreographed fights and shootouts.

Kind of a MST3K on the fly with a tennis brat spin.

5

I caught some of the Connors-Krickstein match from '91 when Connors continually yelled “You are an abortion” at the chair umpire for missing a call. Good times . . .

Seriously, it’s not like I tune into USA 24/7 for the Open, but truth be told, I sort of prefer watching the older matches. You could at least discern a semblance of strategy—as opposed to (a) Really Hard Serve; (b) Other Guy is Caught Off Guard and Can’t Return It; © Rinse and Repeat.

I simplify some, of course, but I find the older, Pat Summerall-announced matches much more fun—even if I vaguely recall who actually won.

6

Play in the rain, you pussies! :smiley:

Cheers,

quasar

7

This is an acknowledged problem in men’s tennis. The sanctioning bodies screwed up and allowed too much technology into the game. The big headed composite rackets just allow too much ball speed, turning the game into a blasting match rather than a game of finesse and strategy as it was intended to be.

Back when Connors, Borg, and McEnroe played, the game was fascinating. You could look forward to matches because a serve-and-volley player was going up against a baseline player and having to adjust his strategy, and vice versa. Or you’d get a couple of serve and volley players, and see some incredible twitch-response action at the net as they tried to get past each other.

Back then, I looked forward to Wimbledon for weeks. People talked about tennis around the water cooler at work. The top players had character, and were everyday names.

Now, it seems they’re all a bunch of hard-serving robots with steely determination. Agassi is the last player I can remember who has some style and flash. Maybe there are some others - I don’t watch tennis anymore.

8

Because they’re idiots, apparently. McEnroe has been ripping them for this (Martina Navratilova, too, and I’m sure they’re not alone). They spent a quarter of a billion dollars on the new stadium, and it’s a very good one. But 15 minutes of drizzle can stop play for hours because there’s no roof, no tarps for the courts, and it takes forever to dry them.

I’d seen bits of the match before, and I knew Connors’ reputation, but until the other day, I didn’t realize he yelled that. Wow. Amazing people were rooting for this guy. What a jerk.

Most of them do hit pretty damn hard - although check out Schalken, who made the semis last year and is in the quarters now. His serve barely breaks 100. But there are plenty of players with flash. I’m a big fan of Max Mirnyi (6’5" serve-and-volleying monster). Younes El Aynaoui has a lot of personality. Roger Federer is an artiste. Agassi’s still my guy, though.

9

That Connors match was great, real class. In fact, I’m hoping it’ll continue to rain so that they can broadcast more of the older matches. All the players back then seemed to have more of an all-court game (a bit like Federer now); they would play at the baseline during the French and serve and volley at Wimbledon (Bjorn Borg - 5 Wimbledons, 6 French Opens). Tennis now seems so specialised.

Regarding the roof: although building a retractable roof may be out of the question at this point, they should consider at least having covers for all the courts so they don’t have to waste so much time soaking up and drying the courts. It’ll be a lot more cost-effective.

Marley23, I too am a fan of ‘The Beast’ (Mirnyi). I seriously hope he considers playing more singles matches. He’s got the talent to win a bunch of titles.

10

Yeah, green. Even if a roof would be too much to ask, you’d think a couple of tarps wouldn’t be such an issue. At Wimbledon, they can cover the court in ten seconds. I’m not sure that’d solve the problem, but you’d think it couldn’t hurt.

Mirnyi is actually up to #18 in the world in singles now, and he won his first title this year. They say serve-and-volleyers take longer to mature, and - although he unfortunately lost in the first round at the Open - I think he’s ready. :slight_smile: He’s also the #1 doubles player. I was fortunate enough to see him and Bhupathi in person last week, took a bunch of pictures and things. Awesome stuff.

11

Yeah, I caught that, too, on Eurosport. I forgot how much of a jackass Connors was. The linesman was right; the ball was clearly out and Connors was whining about the head umpire not overruling the linesman (as the head umpire had once earlier in the match.) I rooted for Krickstein for the rest of match (not remember how it ended.) Then again, Connors winning on his 39th birthday was pretty cool, in a way.

I miss MacEnroe. He might have been a whiny little brat, but there was just something more entertaining and adolescent about it that made it much more fun to watch than Connors.

12

The dominance of serve-and-serve-again play in the men’s game is why I much prefer to watch women’s matches. The women’s game still has an element of strategy to it, the men’s game is boring to watch. It’s so pathetic to hear the announcers gee-whizzing about how fast that last serve was – 138 mph! Wow! Really, I don’t give a rat’s ass how fast the serve was, it’s boring to watch such matches.

Along the same lines, I don’t like to watch the Williams sisters play for the same reason. Venus Williams has a 125 mph serve. Very few women’s players can return it. Talk about dull.

13

**

Somehow watching a Schalken match always makes me feel better about myself. :slight_smile:

I was always a Sampras guy, although that’s probably because of pride in a shared ethnicity. I’ve grown to admire Agassi.

Federer is a beautiful player. I could watch him play all day (well, for a while at least . . .). El Aynaoui’s got a wonderful forehand.

Anyway, there’s always worthwhile players to watch, but the overwhelming style of play turns me off. As someone else mentioned, women’s tennis is just better tennis to watch.

14

Random musings about the U.S. Open:

Yup, a few tarps would be dandy. Home Depot has them. I’d be willing to pitch in 30 bucks to sponsor Court #12’s tarp. Maybe in between all the old matches Mac can take pledges for the other courts. “This is a matching pledge hour, so call in with your best pledge to cover Arthur Ashe.”

Dear lord, the outfits are unbelievably unattractive these days. Capriati looks like a chunky monkey in her tight outfits. She should have been wearing the “Dunkin Donuts” sign on her shirt. Even darling Justine Hennin-Hardin’s skirts are ill-fitting because they always ride up on her thighs.

And the men. Watching Conners/Krickstein made me yearn for the days when you could actually see a guys’ thigh and ass. Tennis and soccer players have the best thighs and asses. Now the outfits are so baggy on the men that you get zero eye candy. And that new fabric makes me cringe when it gets wet with sweat. It just hangs and looks like it weighs 20 pounds.

Can’t we just go back to cotton with tucked-in shirts?

I always thought it was LOU-EEE Armstrong, not LEW-IS Armstrong. What do I know?

El Anayoui is darling. I saw him on one of the smaller courts when they played in Cincinnati and was so cute. Plus he stuck around and signed all the autographs.

Watching the '01 match between Hewitt and Roddick made me wonder once again what’s eating Hewitt. He has so much potential.

Did anyone catch the Ilia Nastassi match? Man, talk about GRUMPY. I thought it was going to turn into fisticuffs.

Is Jennifer Capriati related to Tyne Daly? Same mouth, same dark complexion, same slant to their eyebrows…

I appreciate Martina Navratilova so much more now than I used to. She and Ivan Lendl paid the price for being stoic. No fan support.

Wish they’d play some old Bjorn Borg/Johnny Mac matches. Did they not play any good matches except at Wimbledon?

I agree with Mac that they ought to do away with lets and go back to less powerful racquets.

FWIW, my money is on Hennin-Hardin for the women and Roddick for the men. I know, I know, I’m going on a limb here.

15

His lawsuit against the ATP probably isn’t helping. It’s weird, given how hard he competed prior to this year, that he doesn’t seem to be all there. But he’s doing fine so far, and I wouldn’t be very surprised if he beat Ferrero.

Well, they sure do love her now. I saw her play a couple of rounds ago, and the fans were just going nuts for everything she did (this has apparently been happening in all of her matches). Totally deserved, as she was the best player on the court and made any number of outstanding plays that showed her expertise. 46 years old and looks like she can beat the best, wow.

16

Could be worse…it could be soccer.

17

I hope I wasn’t the only one watching Capriati vs. Henin-Hardenne tonight. This one was pure freudenfreude. :wink: Can’t remember the last time I saw a three-hour women’s match, and this match had everything - comeback after comeback, great rallies, second-, third- and fourth-winds, and a final-set tiebreak. My hat is off to the players in that one.

Actually, I thought it was a fantastic day of tennis - all four men’s quarters and the ladies’s semis, tasty! Should be a great final two days.

18

You weren’t alone. :smiley:

[spoiler] I thought Capriati was gonna take it - but what a freakin’ comeback. This will turn out to be quite a final and I think Kim will finally win her first slam.

Ferrero vs. Hewitt: who wudda thunkit? I think in order for Hewitt to get in his groove, he needs to play a lot of matches; when he announced earlier in the season that he was gonna cut back on his court-time, I knew he was going to flounder. Either that, or he’s genuinely out of gas and runnin’ on steam… or it could’ve been that hip problem.

It should be an interesting weekend, though.

Btw Nalbandian is better than I thought
[/spoiler]

19

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Nalbandian is also better than I thought, green_bladder. Hewitt just demolished him at Wimbledon last year, and even though making the finals in his first tournament on grass was impressive, I hadn’t given him much thought since. (I love Wimbledon, but it’s produced its share of flukey results.) Knew he was 4 and 0 against Federer, but I figured “Roger’s a grand slam champ now, he’ll probably get him this time.” Nope. He really has Federer’s number. I wish El Aynaoui had been 100% today - he nearly pulled off a comback anyway - but there’s no doubting now that Nalbandian is for real. He may get some Slam wins, but I don’t think this is his year. I think we’re gonna get the all-American final so many of us have been salivating over. :slight_smile:

You’re right about Hewitt, too. What a lousy year. He was number one for a solid year and a half, but couldn’t do anything in his home tournament, and got embarrassed at Wimbledon… who’d have thought the quarters would be his best result? He hasn’t won since March, and the only time he even came close, he lost to Wayne Ferreira?
I can’t see him being washed up so young. I don’t like the guy, but I figure he’ll have the (semi-)offseason to pull it together. Gotta respect the fire he displays, and his shotmaking was amazing at times.

Some people are weeping for the future of tennis, but this year has seen the coming out of a number of real young talents. This summer alone…

Roddick: justified the hype. He’s had one of the best hard-court seasons ever, won four titles and 27 of his last 28 matches.

Federer: showed he’s almost perfect at his best. Scary good.

Nalbandian: people are going to take notice this time, I think. Especially if he puts up a good showing tomorrow.

Coria: has been white-hot (3 titles in a row on clay, but he looks like he can play on anything), and DAMN is he fast!

Ferrero: won the French and is showing he is an all-court player.
And I’m just waiting for Mirnyi (26) to join them. :slight_smile:

20

I think Coria was the major surprise; no one knew him prior to this season (well, there was all that drug nonsense) and he just dominated the clay-court season.

But what happened to Mirnyi/Bhupathi? 2-6, 2-6? Man, that was a whippin’. :wink: