Final Observations at The Sony Ericsson

If you think “I gotta feeling” is a “cool new song,” you really need to get out more.

Wertheim has written before about making early Grand Slam rounds best of three; I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but there’s already a day of rest in between these matches and shortening them probably won’t make a big difference.

I also like the whole ESPN team, but I don’t like the extra commentators they bring in during Grand Slams who man the broadcast desk. I also think JMac is better than Pmac.

“this one cool new song which has the lyrics “I got a feeling” every day and it never became annoying.”

Again, another line where I can’t tell if you’re serious or very funny. Obviously the song is not new so I assume you were making a joke and the song was dribing you crazy. On the other hand, you seem to like every player and every commentator — so maybe you were serious.

“criticize Chris Fowler because he’s not really a tennis guy but he knows enough about the game, ”

Enough ? The guy knows the game. And he’s funny too.

“I like Mary Joe too. She is a solid professional,”

I defer to Jon Weirtheim on her professionalism.

“, she never says anything unfair or against anyone.”

That’s what I want in my corporate spokeswomen not my tennis commentator.

“Brad Gilbert is a legend in the sport,”

Gilbert is first rate. Fowler and Gilbert are as good in a different (American style) way as the group that covers the Masters for TC, who are the best.

“Patrick McEnroe”

People can get better. It was comical early in his career just how wooden he was. He’s a lot more pliable now.

“Cliff Drysdale ”

That Drysdale is a former player makes his occasional village idiot routine to Pmac’s expert that much more annoying. The brits never play this game. Obviously Drysdale is supposed to be a stand in for us — the viewer. Do they play this game in any other sport ? Assuming zero knowledge of the viewers. When he isn’t playing village idiot he often sounds like he was manufactured by a corporate committee. You will never hear anything remotely controversial/interesting from this guy.

I, too, vehemently disagree with changing the setup of slams. You wouldn’t get the classic matches if it was best 2-out-of-3. I love that winning a slam is 21-sets, not 14 or 17 sets. One of the best parts of a slam match and most seemingly inconceivable is seeing a player dominate and win the first two sets and then get beaten in the next three like Spadea taking out Stepanek at the Aussie Open a number of years ago. So what if a player loses the first set and comes back to win the next two.

I agree with Michael, make slams epic. Don’t allow a Simon or Monfils to win a cheapened one. What’s gotten into you down south, Scoop, saying you like Maey Joe Fernandez as a commentator. She always seems slightly pissed off to me like she’s still bummed she didn’t win a slam.

@adb “…quit sucking up.”

Amen.

I turned on ESPN and they delayed the semis for LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL.

Most of the time I hear the commentators from tennistv.com and the german ones from Eurosport and some other channels.

They are not really unfair, but often biased and tend to hype certain players. Murray for example & Raonic now. But they forgot to hype Djokovic 😉 I wonder why.

A german commentator gossips too much for my taste.

It upset me, when Robbie Koenig said about Murray, that he is the real #1, when he was #2 behind Federer.

I also hate, when they always mention the wealth of Gulbis father. Are they not sick of doing that? Other players have rich dads also. Murray, Nadal, Roddick. It lacks class to mention money of other ppl. One could think they are jealous.

Or we try to piss you off (or at least I do) with at least a smile on your face. If you’re just pissed, I’m sorry. I don’t know if you’re a woman or a man, but part of the pleasure of watching a men’s match is to see the beautiful girlfriend/wife in the box. If that wasn’t the case, why do the tv cameras continually shine their cameras on them? It isn’t to see Marian Vajda’s face.

Appreciating beauty is not a sexist endeavor in my mind. Why do we go to art museums? And by the way, Radwanska is a pusher.

I don’t know. I only saw last point against Sharapova and she was pushing then.

@scoop, “I have never heard Cliff Drysdale sound like a village idiot, not even remotely close, he is one of the most intelligent people you could ever meet, I don’t understand that comment at all.”

The role is sometimes given to him. Unlike the TC Masters coverage (used to be Barret, Adler and Koenig I think) where you are basically sitting in on a conversation between three people that know the game inside and out and never dumb it down, the American style (particularly for the larger events) is to have one person who pretends to have a rudimetary knowlege of the sport/players lobbing Tennis 101 questions to another playing tennis expert.

I can only assume you haven’t watched much coverage over the years if you haven’t heard the dynamic and which commentators play which role.

“Patrick McEnroe wooden? Again I don’t agree with that at all.”

He’s improved. But if you don’t think PMac was wooden you have not seen him from the start.

“Okay, maybe Mary Joe could be more controversial with her comments like they are in other sports”

As I said, Wertheim pointed out why she can’t be more controversial. I don’t personally want commentators to be controversial just for its own sake but I would like their honest viewpoints. Again, as Wertheim pointed out it’s not clear she can have one given her conflict.

@Dan, “Bud Collins and Vic Braden, plenty of snores.”

Tastes differ but I liked Collins. Aside, Braden couldn’t have been more off on how tennis technique would develop over time. He always advocated classic eastern grips, closed stances etc… And it went Western grips, the swings unorthodox, open stances.

“Shriver used to continually lambast Hantuchova for being too skinny, even though I thought she always looked the same and still looks the same today. ”

DH has not always looked the same over the years. Shriver was not unique in her view either.

“Tryin to have an open mind Dan,”

Sccop, do you have any evidence that careers have been shortened. Because it seems in the last 10 years that players are peaking later and playing longer not retiring earlier. Nadal plays a very physical game. There have always been players that used a physical style. The four Majors, the most successful events in the game, all not run by the ATP, should revamp their tournaments to accommodate a player who wouldn’t even support the change himself ? At the bare minimum, come up with some real evidence that playing 3 out of 5 at Majors is shortening careers. The next thing you’ll be telling me is the climate is warming to dangerous levels and people are causing it.

“That was cool talking with Fish’s buddy Sergio Garcia last year, and Nadal fan Ben Stiller and Fed buddy Gavin Rossdale in IW, they should do more of that.”

I’ll send you a subscription to people magazine for Christmas. I prefer the tennis. You must miss the Michael Barkann USO routine.

“Loreley, I think Djokovic becoming #1 was a surprise to the tennis industry. ”

Do you mean if or when ?

When he might be #1 but not that he could become #1. Not every player that people think could be #1 will pan out as #1 (e.g., Gasquet). Most won’t. But if they do you can’t say it was a surprise to the industry. I was late to the Djoker game having first seen him in 2005 when he was already 18. But he was the youngest in the top 100 by 18. By 19 he was #16 in the world. He was coming up bullet-like. By 20 he made it to the finals of the USO against Fed. The absolutely latest anyone was on board the could be a #1 was 2007. And any manufacturer/agent and the like must have placed bets before then. If Djoker was more overlooked on endorsements then others it may because they felt a Serbian is a tougher sell than a player from a bigger market like UK or Spain.

@ Dan “but part of the pleasure of watching a mens match is to see the beautiful girlfriend/wife in the box. ”

Then I suggest you start adding a lot more Berdych to your schedule. And Monaco.

And I like watching Radwanska’s pushing. Hingis-like.

Has this site degenerated to the point that we’re rating players’ wives/girlfriends?!! I like it. Absolutely, Michael, Monaco’s wife is on my radar and she is my absolutely fave: My Top 5 are:

Monaco
Murray
Troicki
Tipsy
Djoko

PMac–wooden, especially early in career, absolutely. Geez, people get upset about MJ’s conflict of interest with her hubby/agent, but PMac is the director of the USTA’s junior program. How can he candidly talk about Harrison, Kudla, Sock etc?

Carillo is good/funny, but she’s beyond tennis, it seems. Most of the things she says are what the average astute person watching the game would say.

I agree with Michael, players are playing longer these days than they did in yesteryear so why should they make slams easier? There’s not so much running done in a five set and these guys do have a day off between matches, are should have one. Take away the five set matches and you might as well make baseball games seven innings.

Alright, Bud Collins was fun back on WNET and he really is the last tennis journalist who is a lifer. You could say Bodo, but Bodo’s done fishing and the like, and he’s never been a tv presence. Wertheim, I do respect him and find him extremely readable.

My top 5 tennis journalists:

Wertheim
S.L. Price
Tignor
Chris Clarey
Bob Simon

Lifetime Award

Deford
Collins
Plimpton

…MJ does have perfect skin though. She should do Ivory commercials instead of tennis interviews.
Sometimes connections are annoying like when two CNN journalists are married or Alan Greenspan’s wife is a major TV journalist. Biases creep in and it feels unseemly.

I was surprised how tired Murray looked. They played nearly five hours in Australia, but today he looked winded in the second set. What is with Murray always reaching for that left hammy when things get tight? Djoko didn’t look like a world-beater in this event besides the first set against Ferrer so the drama thickens.

Dolgo and Malisse, please, when’s the last time they won besides 20010 IW?

I could go for them shortening sets to five games, and a breaker at 5-all. I just like the problem-solving best-of-five gives players.

Always understood TV commentators wanting the switch to 2 out of 3, they are still probably going to get paid the same money. Though I doubt they would have wanted the switch when they were playing. Drysdale is big on switching to 2 out of 3.
5 setters are way more exciting, split sets and the 3rd set is very exciting, then the 4th, someone is fighting to stay alive and if theres a fifth, you hope the tennis, matches the excitement.
If you cant sit for 5 hours, watch the match on tape with your finger on the fast forward button

Obviously, most people watch the big matches on TV.

Imagine going back in time and thinking how many Slam winners wouldn’t have that slam because they were down 1-2 or 0-2. For example, Agassi wouldn’t have won the French Open. He would fall way down the list without it.

A 5 set match is a novel. Best of 3 is a short story. I like the extra twists, extra momentum shifts and comebacks. I’d be okay with the first week being best of 3 and the 2nd week best of 5.

If I remember correctly from Agassi’s book that particular FO final only turned after Brad Gilbert gave him the “make him feel you” pep talk during suspended play. But I could be wrong.

Imagine if Federer/Nadal Wimbledon’s were only 3 sets.
Wasn’t there a time when the winner from the previous year only had to play in the final?

If youre a “tennis writer” and you cant sit through a 5 set match that you deemed worthy of watching in the first place, maybe youre in the wrong business. As a fan, I prefer 3 out of 5 for the drama and hopefully great play if its a match i’m going to put aside time to watch.
Everybody now wants things over fast, no one wants to kick back and get into a match

I think Harold’s point is that if you’re a tennis writer who doesn’t have deadlines working against you, you should be able to sit through an entire match. And I agree, and I do. Last year at the Open, I got to Louis Armstrong early for the 11 o clock Harrison/Cilic match, and although it was over in 3, I enjoyed watching the whole match. Again for me, and I imagine Harold you’d agree, a lot depends on where you’re sitting. If I can get up close, I’m more engrossed in a match. If I’m sitting even as high as the press seats at AA Stadium, I’m less inclined to watch an entire match.

Also, I find I’d rather entire matches of say, Dolgopolov v. Cipolla, which I caught most of last year at the Open, then Nadal-Djokovic. I was sitting in the hot Indie Wells sun for Djoko-Andujar and I watched the first two sets from a good seat, but then I’d thought I’d get some shade and watch the rest from the upper press box.

But I agree, if you love the sport, watching one 3 out of 5 match on a day that you go to a live event, is not too much to ask.