The men’s final in Miami between Andy Murray and David Ferrer was a gripping match. It was brutal and gruelling tennis played over two hours 45 minutes. The match was an absolute thriller. Maybe someone should have...
The men’s final in Miami between Andy Murray and David Ferrer was a gripping match. It was brutal and gruelling tennis played over two hours 45 minutes. The match was an absolute thriller. Maybe someone should have conveyed that to the jokers at CBS, the American TV network televising the match, who decided to cut their transmission during the final set tiebreak and go to a college basketball game.
They just happened to stay with the match for probably two hours and 35 minutes and could not wait another ten minutes, if that, to allow all those people watching the match and who were just as engrossed as those packing out the stadium court, see the conclusion of one of the best matches of the year so far.
What an absolute disgrace! Shame on the TV network CBS for doing something like that. It just shows how much regard they have for one of the very big events of the year.
While the majority of blame rests with CBS, tennis officialdom shouldn’t get off scot free. When are they going to start taking more of a stand with the American TV networks and stop cow towing to them?
Tennis remains one of the biggest global sports and continues to soar in the ratings around the world. American college basketball is not; I repeat is NOT, a global sport and fortunately never will be. It is not even a professional sport.
This was not a final between two run-of-the-mill players; it was a match between two players who are among the five best players in the world. They played their hearts out and left everything they had on that hard court on Key Biscayne.
If a network like CBS cannot show the highest respect for a global sport like ours, a true global sport and not something that is just played in territory between New York and Los Angeles, then take the event somewhere else.
Even when the match transferred to ESPN it was chopped and changed from ESPN 2 to 3 or whatever they call themselves.
How generous of CBS in that they showed the match point later after all was done. What a joke they are.
Murray said: It’s obviously a shame that people didn’t get to see the end of what I think was a pretty exciting match, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Tennis’s hierarchy must start to stand their ground with these American TV stations. These TV networks already have way too much say in the sport and dictate too much for the benefit of the game.
Tennis is a great sport. It is a sport that is perfect for TV because the dimensions of a court fit perfectly into a TV screen and you get a full picture.
Maybe the players should be starting to make a stand on things such as this. If they are asking for a greater share of the takings from a tournament with increases to prize money, then maybe they need to also start pressuring TV networks.
The Tennis Channel picked up the final set tiebreak which is great but way too many households don’t get The Tennis Channel.
Apparently this is the last year for CBS’s contract with the event. If they renegotiate, then the tournament has to be firm with the deal and not allow something like this to happen again.
