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U.S. Open Schedule: Super Saturday is now fully buried, as tennis moves past the 1980s

The Super Saturday format used at the United States Open tennis championships was officially retired in 2013. That year’s tournament marked the end of the United States Tennis Association’s decision (in partnership with CBS television) to put two men’s semifinals and the women’s final on the same order of play. Yet, in reality, the possibilities […]

Covering The Coverage: TV At The 2014 U.S. Open

American television’s coverage of major-tournament tennis is never less complicated than at the Australian Open each January. ESPN2 has to work around its college basketball programming at times, but Tennis Channel picks up the early window of coverage on most if not all days, and deep into the night, ESPN2 and ESPN are all too […]

ESPN at Wimbledon, Week Two: Lots Of Excellence, One Error

The story of ESPN’s performance in week one at Wimbledon is archived here. Why was this account so lengthy? Very simply, ESPN (and at times, ESPNEWS) covered Wimbledon with only one television channel at one time. ESPN covered tennis until the early World Cup match came on, and ESPNEWS then filled in. However, the WorldWide Leader […]

Covering The Coverage: Wimbledon Week One In Review

Here at Attacking The Net, it’s important to document, instance by instance – for better or worse – the way in which tennis broadcasters cover the major tournaments. We did this in our debut at Roland Garros a few weeks ago, so we’re definitely going to do so again for Wimbledon. Roland Garros, as diehard […]

2014 Wimbledon Viewer’s Guide

Clay-court fans and the backers of immensely successful clay-court players view the French Open as the crown jewel of every year. The longtime chroniclers of tennis — those who have been around for at least 40 years in the press boxes and media centers of the sport — will calmly point out how marginalized grass-court […]

Tennis On TV: Roland Garros Week 2 In Review

The second week of a major tennis tournament will regularly offer broadcast outlets fewer chances to make mistakes in terms of programming and match selection. The first week is chock full of matches, so in many ways, that week tests a network’s commitment to tennis in ways the second week can never really match. The […]

Tennis On TV: Roland Garros Week 1 Overview

The way in which tennis networks cover major tournaments has been a constant source of exasperation for American tennis fans (and also Canadian fans when their sports networks cede coverage to the American ones). Yet, complaining can only do so much. Why not simply document the various moves American tennis networks make during a major […]

Tennis On TV: 5 Ways The Product Is Improving

Tennis coverage on American television was so much worse several years ago. The rise of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal created ample demand for the product itself, but the quality of the product didn’t always meet the standards of tennis fans new and old. In recent years, however, a number of problems have been solved. […]

Tennis On TV: 5 Persistent Flaws In The Industry

Tennis has endured some rough live TV moments on American airwaves in recent years, but those embarrassments are exceeded in severity by the more structural problems tennis faces on the tube in this country. Five lingering deficiencies – pertaining to industry realities, not individual match broadcasts – continue to prevent this sport from being presented […]

Tennis On TV: 5 Embarrassing Moments

American fans will tell you that tennis is treated much more poorly on U.S. television than other major sports, including and especially golf, the other main solo-athlete sport in this country. What are the moments (not industry realities, but live on-air occurrences) that have stayed in the minds of American tennis viewers? 5 – THE […]

20 (Good) People You Meet On Tennis Twitter

Part of the experience of following tennis – especially at the four major tournaments – is significantly enhanced by joining “Tennis Twitter,” the social media community that tweets about tennis. Every community has its flaws (because all human beings are imperfect), but Tennis Twitter is a delightfully diverse place in which a casual sports fan […]

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