Saturday, May 30, 2009

French Open miscellany

Yesterday, the Tennis Channel online live streaming went out. Today, it went out again, then the entire site went down. The result was that I could not watch the Williams-Martinez Sanchez match. I was able to find a live stream of the Federer match, and occasionally, Williams-Martinez Sanchez highlights were shown. As we move into the second week, I certainly hope that the Tennis Channel website gets it act together.

I was informed by an eyewitness that when the Sharapova-Petrova match began, a spectator was asked to leave the stadium, and that during Sharapova's press conference, her manager showed photos of the spectator to security personnel. The word is that the man was banned from Roland Garros but found his way in, and that Sharapova's manager has requested additional bodyguards for her.

Li Na is the first Chinese player to reach the round of 16 at the French Open.

Referee Stefan Fransson says that there will be an official chat with Michelle Larcher de Brito prior to Wimbledon about her shouting on the court. Aravane Rezai complained to the both the umpire and Fransson about Larcher de Brito, who responded by noting that Rezai didn't complain until Larcher de Brito started winning games.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed that you found a Federer stream at all -- NBC appears to be very protective of its right to show tape-delayed tennis. Kind of a shame after being spoiled by the Tennis Channel's online offerings this week.

I'm not sure if the Tennis Channel stream is restricted based on geography, but there was a note telling me that I could find Serena's match on NBC. (Kind of them I suppose).

Diane said...

I think that NBC had the rights to Serena's match, so Tennis Channel couldn't show it live. However, the website was supposed to show it live--but then it crashed.

The Federer stream was from Iraq. I got to it from channelsurfing.net.