Even if you're not in the stands, watching the Australian Open in Melbourne has a different feel because you see it on local TV. The biggest difference is really psychological: instead of being held in a faraway place with upside down seasons and soul-sapping time differences, it's happening just down the street and the weather matches what you can see out of your window.

But the telecasts have their own distinct style as well. There aren't any Andre Agassi interviews via satellite here, but some of the voices do sound familiar – like BBC, Channel Seven has tried to jazz up their commentary in recent years by bringing in some American names.

John McEnroe used to be the most prominent import but Jim Courier is the main man this year, doing play-by-play and the courtside interviews for the night matches. Tracy Austin is doing the women's matches. John Barrett provides a British voice, and former Aussie players/coaches in the box include Todd Woodbridge, Darren Cahill, Roger Rasheed and John Fitzgerald.

There's always been a gap in commentary style (direct, technical, plentiful vs. more poetic, emotional and restrained), but the growing American influence means it's beginning to close. Some differences still remain: there's definitely less chatter and less general grumbling in the booth, but also a little less playfulness and creativity.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that the best combo is to take a freewheeling American commentator like Johnny Mac or Courier and put him in the more restrictive environment of a British or Australian booth. He's then forced to have more discipline and cut out the excessive tangents and rambling, but the insights and humour remain.

A few other notes about the broadcasts:

The Good

There are two high-tech cameras that Channel Seven makes frequent use of. One is the roofcam, which seems to be new this year and provides an overhead view of the point -- the Pong angle, if you like. What it demonstrates, though, is that we're definitely not watching Pong out there -- it vividly shows all the changes of pace, anticipation and changes of angle the players incorporate into each point.

The roofcam is used as a replay tool, so it's fun to see the point tht just took place from this perspective. The ball will be going back and forth when suddenly Baghdatis will step in and knock it off for a winner at a geometrically impossible angle. With the roofcam, you can really see what a special shot it was.

There's also the super slow-mo camera, which has been used by CBS in the past. Though Seven has used this one a bit gluttonously, it's great for breaking down strokes in an accessible way and showing the intensity of play – you can see eyes popping and sinews straining in every shot shown.

On a broader level, there's the way tennis is embraced during this period. The action is shown all day except for a short break for the evening news, and Seven even does its evening newscasts from the grounds. A promo for Grey's Anatomy with Meredith trying to choose between McDreamy and Whoever-it-is else uses a tennis scoreboard with the score flipping between deuce and advantage to one of the guys.

There's no underlying worry about whether there will be good stories and great moments, just a certainy that there will be plenty and a determination to enjoy them as they happen. Marcos Baghdatis' return was highly anticipated this year, but there was no hand-wringing when he lost early, just: "Woah, that Monfils!" There's been no discernible "Fernando who?" reaction to Gonzalez's run to the final, but lots of enthusiasm about his awesome form and whether he can do anything against Federer. Woah, that Federer.

The Bad

The telecast has succumbed to the recent tendency to show the number of sets won rather than the set scores at the bottom of the screen, so a match in the third set reads 1-1, 1-2, 30-0 rather than 5-7, 6-1, 1-2, 30-0. If you're just tuning in, you have no idea what happened earlier in the match – not even who won the second set. And in the first game of the third, it looks like it's actually 1-1 in the first set. Dumb move.

Pre-game interviews are also a clumsy element – players don't feel chatty, and you can  really feel them recoil when the interviewer occasionally asks an inappropriately off-beat question like what they've been doing during their off-time. Better to pre-record something during the day before.

The Ugly

The courtside interviews after the match are getting a little too cutesy. There's definitely room for some of that, but a little goes a long way. The nadir was Jim Courier asking Maria Sharapova, at the end of a prety lengthy Q&A, what she looked for in a guy. After an "Are you kidding me?", Sharapova saved the moment with a cheeky, "Well, he doesn't have red hair." Without that little flash of inspiration, it could have been ugly.

Then there was Andy Roddick taking the mike and turning the tables on Courier, saying he was glad to see Courier had ditched those tight, white shorts from his playing days. Then, in a much talked-about moment, Roddick asked Courier if he had "commitment issues."

Some fun stuff, granted. But repeat this sort of scene twenty times, and it starts to get cheesy.

The super slo-mo is also being overdone. It's used on too many shots which are better seen on normal replay, like a player's fistpump after winning the set. But worst is all those super slo-mo montages set to rambling ballad music. Cringe city.

One thing I'm undecided on is the practice of having the colour commentators switch around every set and a half or so. For example, a match might start with Courier and Woodbridge, with Cahill replacing Woodbridge after about an hour. On the one hand, you could see it as changing things up; on the other, as breaking the rhythm. But either way, their accent tells you you're definitely not watching ESPN anymore.