First?

Answer to if question: Depends on who is playing at the current moment.

Agree with Master Ace. More often than not, though, I try to stick with it, all the while swearing and swatting at my laptop.

Bleg:

I was thinking about doing a careful analysis of Federer's last loss to Nadal when it occurred to me I have no idea how to do it. I analyzed a pair of my matches and found out two things that were very helpful to me, but I'm sure there's some kind of routine set of questions to look at. At my current level of ignorance, there are just too many questions and none of them are prioritized in my head.

Is there some handful of questions I can ask myself of a match, or in watching any match, that will quickly point me at the key points of failure and success?

Thanks!

Depends on a) who's playing and b) if there's another stream available.

But if I can't get through an entire point w/o losing the feed, I'll usually give it up.

Ed,
Did the USA decide not to renew their contract? If so, why?

Stick with a bad feed? Nah. Not me.

I paid for the atpmastersseries.tv bargain, and will keep it indefinitely. And if I only watch those events plus the slams, that's the way it will be. I love that atpmastersseries.tv lets me tune in to the direct court feds and ice out the commentators, too. They're not bad, but I love to hear the shoes, refs, and strings doing their thing.

>you find streaming coverage of a tournament that is of poor quality (keeps buffering, is choppy), do you tough it out and stick with it?

Is there another choice? Yes, if I have nothing else, and it's an exciting match.

****if...

you find streaming coverage of a tournament that is of poor quality (keeps buffering, is choppy), do you tough it out and stick with it?*******

I do, because I always like to see some shots rather than the scoreboard, but I will open another window, looking for other streamings like crazy. That's why nothing beats ATP master TV! great quality, sit back and watch. Also Rotterdam was great to offer free streaming.
Barcelona was awful. no streaming and the players' interviews were just a joke. two sentences taken from the whole interview and there is no way you could find the original transcript.

'if you find streaming coverage of.... '

Absolutely. Unless it's totally unwatchable, I'll stick with it.

I have on video the last three hours of that classic AO match of 2003, and still love to watch it.

Hi Ed - I, too, am worried about the fate of the US Open coverage. I hope that we are not left with 2-3 hours per day and maybe a 3 hour block of night matches, as opposed to the all day marathons from USA. I thought they generally did the US Open pretty well, at least with respect to offering a ton of live coverage and not just replaying the same matches on tape delay.

As for the streaming, I would stick with it if it was a player that I really cared about and that was the only possibility of watching the match. I find that with bad streaming the audio is usually still decent but the video can fail. I listen/watch matches while I am trying to do some other things at work sometimes.

About the streaming coverage, I wouldn't stick with a lousy stream, but it's more for financial reasons. My ISP charges me if I exceed a certain monthly bandwidth limit, and a stream that's continually buffering is continually downloading large amounts of data, but not quickly enough for anything to actually be seen. By sticking with that, I fritter away precious bandwidth for nothing.

That said, my tolerance of stop-start streams varies considerably depending on who's playing and how the match is going.

I agree about US Open coverage on the USA Network. It certainly was comprehensive, but most of all reliable. Although many may disagree, I actually like Michael Barkan. In my eyes, the best part about the US Open's move to ESPN is that we get coverage of all 4 grand slams on one network. While a tennis nut like me will search hours and hours for tennis on television, a casual fan may not go to such lengths. Having it all in one place may increase viewership. I just hope we get to see all around coverage of matches, not just Shrieky and Roddick. Sad to see the US Open leave USA Network though.

My answer to If question . . . Hail to the No!

I take live scoring and matching calling by Master Ace and/or Whitney over poor quality streaming any day. Even if my fave Venus is playing.

Thanks Pete for this article about El Aynaoui, I think that when he's fit, he can beat probably beat anyone on one day, he has such a wonderful forehand, one of the best in the ATP tour.

Great stuff, Ed.

I, too, am sad at the loss of USA coverage. As Ed said, it was a BIG DEAL to them, something that certainly doesn't always come across from ESPN. They treated our sport with great respect, and since it was such a priority event for their network, they would often stay with late matches no matter how long they went. Connors-Pmac, anyone?

I always loved the Robinson-JMac combo, with the wonderful Vitus thrown in when he was still with us. I was always kind of bummed when CBS would take over coverage on the weekends, since I felt that USA always did a much better job.

Ah, well. I guess all good things must come to an end. Pity.

Ed, great post on the TV switch to ESPN. Quick question though, I don't remember the Sampras/Roddick in '02 as being a particularly great match, even if it ran late into the night.. Sampras smoked Roddick in 3 sets if I remember.

I'm not sure that USA chose not to renew, but that they were outbid by ESPN. ESPN has been talking about getting the USO for a number of years.

I read an article that espn makes more $$ than any other cable channel, if they want an event, they can probably get it.

Also, anyone else sorta turned off by the sports ticker that runs on the bottom of the screen during espn's broadcasts?

add that to the list of reasons USA was great as well, no ticker.

Plus last year(& the year before) USA started this deal with DirectTV where they show coverage of like 3 or 4 courts simultaneously. With espn, I'm not sure this deal will still be in effect. But espn did offer extra coverage of other courts at Wimbledon online.

I'm also thinking of the timing of the USO - it interferes with espn's baseball coverage. Now I know they have 2 channels, but I've noticed that they show a lot of baseball on both channles in late August/early September. Let's hope there's not a close pennant race next year.

Of all the slams, I thought USA's coverage was the best. This really saddens me that they won't be doing it anymore. As someone said upthread, USA stuck with matches that didn't fit into neat halfhour blocks, showed us so much variety in players and great matches, and the CBS weekend coverage didn't hold a candle to them. Too bad.

KP, good point about ESPN and the baseball coverage. Not to mention the beginning of football season. The USO will be ESPN2, at best.

as far as USA's extended coverage, I remember them being on the air continuously from 11 am to after midnight on this day in '97. this was the schedule, lots of long matches:

Rios-Bruguera
Seles-Spirlea
Chang-Pioline
Williams-Testud
Agassi-Rafter

>Also, anyone else sorta turned off by the sports ticker that runs on the bottom of the screen during espn's broadcasts?

Especially when they widen it to block the scoreline so they can show football scores or something, argh!

zola,

>Barcelona was awful. no streaming

I could watch the stream from Barcelona just fine...there were a bunch posted on TW during the event.

Thanks for the shout-out TennisEsq.

Yes I will stick to a very poor livestream - I don't know why since it only frustrates me. I did watch a tiny orange square for a Fed match in Estoril - and I know I was not the only one. ;)

The US Open on USA is one of my first tennis memories - I will be sad when it moves to ESPN.

Ed: Agree with the many posts lauding USA Network’s coverage of the US Open – I like it the best out of all the Slams. In addition, the quality of their HD broadcast last year the best among all the Slams (CBS was very good as well. With the swtich to ESPN, I expect the video quality to be good, but think the overall coverage will suffer.

Speaking of video feeds, the Barcelona one was so much better than the Monte Carlo one (i.e., it was actually watchable).

Answer to the if question - No. It's not worth watching to me.

"I take live scoring and matching calling by Master Ace and/or Whitney over poor quality streaming any day. "

Same here. They do a great job with the match calling.

I will watch streams until I go blind. I will watch streams with commentary in Spanish, Hungarian, and Arabic. I will get out of bed to watch streams. I am obsessive according to my family.

I did stop watching once when the sound of the ball being struck and the picture were not in sync. That was just too weird.

As far as USA network - I certainly will miss their coverage because my favorite type of coverage is many hours (so I can go out and come back and it's still on) and includes players from countries other than the US. I'm only a homer for Davis Cup.

KP,
Think Tennis Channel will be able to provide some USO coverage with ESPN2 since they are a team in covering Grand Slams. Will be interesting to see if TC decides to do multiple court coverage for Roland Garros this year.

Ed...me too. I have the same feelings as you. I am a teacher, and the USA/USO combo always harkened the start of school. I would watch hours of the USA coverage. And I like Ted and John very much. And like someone else said, CBS w/ there constant promos and packages always seemed like an intrusion. Like an unwanted guest at a party.
I like ESPN's coverage of AO and Wimbeldon. Of course they are helped with time of day. I love waking up in the summer to watch the rain, and the tents, and Chris Fowler trying to get us excited to watch Serena's match one more time. No seriously, I really like their coverage. And I think their coverage of AO is great. The Hewitt/Baggy match was a clasic. Gotta love a punch drunk PMac with Darrin Cahill.
I will not miss Michael Barkin, the guy's an idiot.

My if answer...
Last summer I had live scoring on 1 screen, with a live stream that was choppy and 4 games behind, with German commentary...to follow Rafa in his Stuggart semi final.
So yes...

Barfcan and Poodle have fans?!! Say it ain't so. Okay...PART of what makes Barfcan so objectionable...but only part...is not his fault. Those AWFUL interviews that he has to do with the USA starlet/beefcake du jour. About 90% of the time the poor dolt in question has no knowledge of tennis and less interest - and barely any knowledge of why they ARE there. And it shows. Besides which, they often keep on droning on while there is actual TENNIS being played. Unforgivable.

Poodle is marginally better when he is NOT paired with JMac...but WITh JMac, well,the word 'lickspittle' comes to mind.

I will say that after years of bailing out during exciting matches that ran a little too late for their commercial comfort, USA has recently been rock solid when it comes to providing real wall to wall coverage. I mean other than their blinkered focus on all and any Americans that is.

As always, thanks Ed, great job!

As far about the US Open going to ESPN, NBC Universal is rumored to be "on sale" after the Olympics so USA Net would not have renewed their US Open coverage anyway.

I'll miss USA Network's coverage. With ESPN taking over the coverage next year, I'm sure that we'll have fewer hours of tennis due to the beginning of College football season, football, eating contests, baseball and everything else. ;)

As for the question....
I do watch terrible live streams, I hate watching scoreboards. :)

For my money, J-Mac is a great commentator; knows when to shut-up during play, and there's no one I would rather listen to when it comes to tennis. Unfortunately Robinson is usually also in the booth with J-Mac, and he's unbearable.

So, J-Mac won the Australian Outback, and beat Pete along the way. Not bad. Johnny said something like it was good to win again after a 2-year drought; his fans are 75-year-old women.

Ahhh J-Mac, the sexbomb!

Anyone up for Gimelstob as a commentator for the US Open? >=)

The live feeds are my salvation--at least when I'm a tennis spectator. I'll stick with them. Am hoping there will be lots more to chose from. Coverage from justin.tv and and live stream from Sanish television made Barcelon a joy.

The lack of advertisements or minimal advertising on live streams makes them far preferable to US television. Last year's US Open coverage was almost unwatchable with John McEnroe's credit card commercial, Serena William's touting HP computers, and Sharapova shouting in my living room about something--cameras?

I didn't realize how intrusive the commercials on US broadcasts were until I had the pleasure of watching Dubai in March on Sky Sports in the UK. Sure there were commercials, but not that many and not shown at crucial times during a match. I'd love to be visiting my daughters for Wimbledon, but that will have to be in 2009 or later! No commercials at all!

I also preferred the quieter commentators on Sky Sports--they let the tennis do the talking. And they were not prejudiced. They actually talked about Andy Roddick's game and made me appreciate how good a player he can be.

Bring on more live streaming. The broadcasts by Fox Sports really put me off television tennis. ESPN isn't sports broadcasting, it's advertising with a bit of sport thrown in.

I, too, love USA's coverage of the U.S. Open. It always seemed top drawer to me. That said, I think that ESPN does a good job on the majors it covers, and has really stepped it up in the last year. When you look at how much tennis they show at Roland Garros and Wimbeldon, I think it is safe to say the U.S Open will be covered just as comprehesively.

For me, however, the best coverage of any major was when Wimbledon was on HBO in the 80s and 90s. Yes, the fact that it was on a premium cable channel significantly limited viewership--not to mention one had to endure hours of Jim Lampley--but the fact there were no commercials and cross promotions seemed to fit perfectly with Wimbledon's vibe. I also have fond memories of being in high school, waking up (relatively) early to catch the beginning of the HBO broadcasts, and then promptly falling back asleep on the couch. Those were the years....

I guess my point is that I loved the HBO broadcasts even more than I now do USA's. And while I look back fondly on those days at times, in no way do I lament that Wimbledon is now on ESPN. In fact, I think they do the event justice and I know associate the tournament with them without a second thought. I bet I will feel the same with the U.S Open.

James,

I remember fondly the HBO broadcasts of Wimbledon. The way tennis is these days, it may happen again.

During the awards ceremony, JMac signed autographs while the sponsors gave speeches and when the runner-up was speaking as well. It was quite rude. When he finally tore himself away, I have to admit, he gave a very humbling and grateful speech.

Looking forward to todays/tomorrows matches. Some top seeds will be in action.
Vamos Roddick lol

Looking forward to todays/tomorrows matches. Some top seeds will be in action.
Vamos Roddick lol

Looking forward to todays/tomorrows matches. Some top seeds will be in action.
Vamos Roddick lol

sorry don't know what happened there with the triple post. lol

THIS IS SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! My best quote since January 2008.

“For my favorite fan base — 75-year-old women — this proves to you that you can still be young at an advanced age. I’ve been playing for a couple of years with frustration and wondering if I was ever going to win again.”

The 49-year-old John McEnroe, playing in his 13th career event on the 30-and-over tour, earned $54,000 with the victory over the 40-year-old Krickstein. McEnroe beat Jim Courier and Pete Sampras en route to the final.

For anyone who is interested in Berlin, ESPN 360 will be streaming it on Thursday and I think every day after that one at 6AM TW time.

Juju is so cute when she says she's looking foward to being back on the clay. The faster courts haven't been kind, and she knows this is her chance to show everyone. I'm glad she will be facing Serena, the alleged #1 because she is going to prove who the true world's #1 is. No doubts, no fears, she's Queen of the clay. Go Justine, world's #1! BTW, is it just me or does Younes remind you a lot of Blake when he had the same kind of hair, a few years ago. A go to Hillary to, she's going to be the first woman president which I think is great and about time.

Samantha Elin,
First match will be on Wednesday against Chan. Justine should ease her way back into form.

To no name poster at 8:30 PM,
Thanks for the info but my provider does not carry ESPN360.

The thing is that the US Open didn't make money for USA. After the network was acquired when NBC merged with Universal the strategy changed. USA began airing original programming. That programming attracted more viewers than the US Open could.

It's sad, but true. The US Open was a losing strategy for NBC/USA in the end, especially since CBS had the broadcast rights to the final weekend.

Posted by Samantha Elin 05/05/2008 @ 8:54 PM

Juju is so cute when she says she's looking foward to being back on the clay. The faster courts haven't been kind, and she knows this is her chance to show everyone. I'm glad she will be facing Serena, the alleged #1 because she is going to prove who the true world's #1 is. No doubts, no fears, she's Queen of the clay. Go Justine, world's #1! BTW, is it just me or does Younes remind you a lot of Blake when he had the same kind of hair, a few years ago. A go to Hillary to, she's going to be the first woman president which I think is great and about time."

Why did Tennis attribute the quote "I feel like Rafa on clay" in their headline to Justine, when the article quotes Serena as saying it???

As always Ed - nice post. My first stop on Monday am is always TW MNP... (I often beat you - loosah that I am!)

As for your question, I'll watch almost any stream.... hail, I watched the Monte Carlo mimes on tv - which proves I'll pretty much watch anything!

I too lament the loss of the US Open to ESPN. USA has always had the best coverage of any of the slams, imo. They always stay with the matches and never commit the cardinal sin of showing us interviews and taped drivel when live tennis is on. I also attribute my succumbing to tennis watching kad-ness to USA network - where I'd catch tennis late at nite and they kept on with the matches no matter the time. Despite myself, I was hooked. (Though I wouldn't confess it for years... lol!)

Sigh - despite ESPN's recent turning around of their stellar record for abysmal coverage; I still don't trust them not to put on bass fishing. or the first pregame preshow analysis of the new cheerleaders for the NFL... pfft. we'll see.

Ed,

Do you by any chance know what happened to the CBS late night wrap up/highlights show they used to do for the USO? It suddenly vanished last year. A victim of budget cuts?

Amelie's out of Berlin with a muscle strain.

Bummer. This girl can't get healthy. I wonder if she's overtraining?

somebody in one website suggested that if some people could capture on video ATP or WTA tennis tournaments on local broadcast and have it streamed live for everybody to see, then those in other countries with no coverage will be able to watch it too. there must be a way somehow to work around copyright issues. hehehe.

i just thought it liberating/empowering to the tennis fans all over the world if this could work.

ncot, this is what Slingbox does - captures TV feed and "slings" it to a computer for viewing. (see www.slingmedia.com, I think.)

However, I'm pretty sure that a slingbox can only send feed to one computer at a time at the moment. But the technology is certainly there to take a TV feed and send it to computers for viewing, so it's just a question of finding software that allows for multiple viewers to log on.

Somehow I'm guessing that such software won't be legal...

FEDERER: "I reckon this defeat proves again that yes, I do have the game to beat him. I could have played six or seven sets if I had to and it is really a shame that the final is only a best-of-three."

Yes Roger, please TAME THE BEAST.

We are civilized.

Its a little annoying to see Henin face Serena at the quarterfinal stage so often. Those two should be contesting finals. If only Serena could get her ranking up.....

Arod Vs Fish should be very interesting! I would go with Arod in three sets.

Berlin Now:

Bartoli up 5-0 on Safarova.

Later day matchups:

Serena-Schiavone
Vaidisova - Dulko

Predictions?

Moderator:

When will the Italian Open Day 2 post be out?

I pick Serena and Dulko

Is Steve Darcis an easy fry for Nole in R32?

Serena and Dulko too, but I would love to see Francesca give Serena a good fight. She's so much fun to watch. And for those of use in Europe, we might actually catch it on Eurosport. It would be a treat.

Top 5 Murray!

I definelty think Darcis can take a set of Djoko at the very least.

Swiss Viking: Think Seena would ahve her hands full against Francesca.

Afwu: Yeah, Darcis with a title this year plays solid. Especially, against an ailing Nole he can cause some damage.

Go Andy Go!

really late, but i have to add that i like USA's coverage of the USO. i liked when TNT covered wimbledon and then ESPN took over and ruined it. not a fan of ted robinson but i love johnny mac. i'm sad that ESPN's taking over the US Open coverage. it should be interesting.

as for the "If" question...i have been toughing it out and it's nicer to at least see something rather than just stare at the scoreboard and wonder what's happening.

More thoughts on USA's coverage - I like JMac and Courier. Robinson used to be okay, but the last few years I've found him rather irritating.

The Rome ATP TV feed is very good. The TC feed from Rome is not quite as good, but is watchable unlike the Monte Carlo one.

well done, man