Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Passing shots

Dinara Safina appears to have withdrawn from the French Open.

Li Na recently told an interviewer, in response to a question about her fame, that if she were a man, she would be the most famous athlete in China. She added that women will never achieve that type of equality, not just in China, but throughout the world. You said it, Big Sister.

Li, by the way, has changed coaches. Her husband, Jiang Shan will stop coaching her. Instead, Li has hired Michael Mortensen, who is captain of the Danish Fed Cup team. 

Timea Bacsinszky recently had surgery on her left foot, so she'll be out for a while.

Tom Perrotta thanks Tennis Channel for its "relentless coverage" of the clay court season. That would be "relentless coverage of the ATP clay court season."

Speaking of coverage...Tennis TV has dropped its separate WTA/ATP packages, and customers will now have to buy a package that includes both tours. This means customers will pay almost twice as much to get matches they perhaps do not want to watch. (I always bought just the WTA package, but that was only because I didn't want to tempt myself with the combined package.) The good part is that Tennis TV offers excellent customer service and way better commentary than anything we see on television in the USA.

7 comments:

Wayne said...

Excepting the Slam's, Eurosport's tennis coverage throughout the season is exclusively WTA. We get 3/4 live matches every day at most of the big events - a good commentary team: I have no complaints. ATP events are shown on the "big bucks" Sky Sports channel. I refuse to subscribe to Mr Murdoch's empire on moral grounds... well except a temporary subscription for one month of the year. Sky have exclusive rights on all of the show-courts at the US Open.

BBC's Wimbledon digital coverage takes some beating. 5 courts live and interrupted all day, every day and NO AD BREAK's. Plus, some of my favourite American's are very active in the commentary box: Johnny Mac, Martina Nav, Peter Fleming, Tracy Austin as well as our own Virginia Wade.

Diane said...

I've heard that the BBC Wimbledon coverage is good; BBC is thinking of giving it up, however.

I really like Tennis TV, and so many improvements have been made to it in the last year or so.

Wayne said...

Amidst the recent doom and gloom of poorly attended women's matches... What a difference when a home player is 'rockin the joint'. Schiavone vs Hantuchova today on a packed Court Centrale, the atmosphere was electric. Terrific sporting theatre.

Diane said...

I enjoyed watching it!

Diane said...

I had a comment here, but the Blogger maintenance project wiped it out. Anywy, the BBC is considering doing away with Wimbledon live coverage.

Karen said...

Wayne, I too enjoy the Wimbledon Live coverage. No other tournament does it quite like Wimbledon does. All I have to do is pay my subscription and I get matches, when I want, whenever I want it. Last year I had problems getting coverage while I was in Jamaica but I am hoping that now that I am elsewhere, I will be able to get this coverage. I love listening to Virginia Wade. So knowledgeable about tennis and none of the snark that you get from the American commentary team. JMac is also good when he is on BBC duties and the only time I listen to Matt Cronin is during Wimbledon when they do the wrap up on the radio. You can hear how knowledgeable he is about tennis when he talks about it. He should do that and try not to ever write about the sport.

Diane said...

We used to get the Internet version of Wimbledon Live in the USA, but that stopped a few years ago.

I enjoy Virginia Wade, but I think she can be quite snarky from time to time (which isn't all bad).