I'm a little disappointed in this "US Open Series." There was an ad for it in my local paper and it seemed like every tournament was going to be on TV. But when I checked ESPN for the current ones, they are only showing from the Quarters on. That's a little misleading. Obviously I'm glad to see anything they'll show but how about some truth in advertising?

RE: bragging... sorry Juanita! Did I mention I saw Hall of Fame as well as Fed Cup this weekend on the Tennis Channel? But seriously, sorry you didn't get tickets. It looks like quite an intimate venue (wich is probably why it sold out quickly).

It never sells out, I think Andre playing doubles with Rod Laver and Steffi being inducted (with Andre doing the introduction) helped a bit. Every year I mean to go and every year, I don't.

I think the early rounds are supposed to be on that Tennis Channel that you have, Castallack. . . are they showing the early rounds of L.A. this week?

What? You mean the exciting match-up of Rusedski vs. Popp wasn't what was packing them in? I am shocked, shocked. They did show a minute or two of Agassi/Laver vs. McEnroe/Roche and it was pretty cool, I have to admit.


Well, I go by my ReplayTV listings and it shows several segments of "WTA Tennis" so that could be it. Or it could be matches from 1987. But I'm hoping you're right.

I am furiously looking for clips of Steffi being inducted in the Hall of Fame yesterday and haven't seen any despite watching ESPNews. Maybe they'll have it today.

Rusedski vs. Popp? Nah, I'm not really interested in watching serve-a-thons, but if anything thinks that's fun....

According to Andre's site: Not a clip, but a picture on www.projo.com (the Providence Journal). I didn't feel like registering so I don't know what else is on there.

I'm in the same boat as you. I went to projo.com first. I did find a few nice pictures on the Newport News' website. I would like to see some TV coverage given how much coverage the networks will give to the Canton and Cooperstown inductions.

They showed part of the Hall of Fame induction on Fox SportNet. Agassi gave a very touching speech before Steffi took to the podium. Steffi was in tears hearing him express his love and admiration for her. When Steffi spoke she said that tennis has brought her many things, but the the most important thing it brought into her life was Andre. I must I was a little choked up hearing them. They must really be in love.

My first double post. Sorry!!!

Here's a link to a couple of clips from the local Newport NBC affiliate:
http://cf.turnto10.com/pro/sh/videoplayer/...19005&owner=pro

I doubt ESPNews will have anything about the ceremony. Right now all they want to talk about 24/7 is the Shaq trade and the possibility of Randy Johnson going to the Yankees because they are convinced that every sports fan in the country cares what happens with the Lakers and Yankees. I personally couldn't care less.

Graf is my all-time favorite player and I love Agassi but am I the only who was just a tad uncomfortable watching that ceremony? I mean, it's great that Agassi so obviously adores Graf but this wasn't their wedding where it would be a little more appropriate for him to be so publicly expressing his love. I think he really should have stuck more to her great tennis career instead of making it so personal.

I love TWoP! Thanks, zooropa, for posting that link!

Oh, I was totally sqicked out by Andre's speech. I was like, what the hell, shouldn't this be more about her tennis? I guess he felt he needed to do that since they had a shotgun wedding and all. Steffi's dad looks ill or something to me.

Andre finally made it to 800 wins. That's quite an amazing accomplishment.

I am feeling the Andre love. Got to remember to set the VCR to record the match Friday night. Let's see, what's the likelihood that it'll be an Andre match?

Oooh, JuanitaSmi, you're going to be so jealous of Castallack! I could be wrong, but looking at the L.A. schedule and checking ESPN's schedule with The Tennis Channel's schedule it looks like ESPN2 will not be showing Andre's match tonight but The Tennis Channel will. Also, looking ahead to tomorrow. . . The Tennis Channel will be showing The Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Steffi Graf and Stefan Edberg.

Okay, even if you aren't jealous I sure am.

LT, I was banking on ESPN showing Andre. Given the title of this thread, I'm counting on ESPN to come through for me this weekend.

Also, the Castallack envy is continuous although I'm not sure I would get anything done if I had the option of watching tennis all day.

Man it is so good to feel the love around here! The love for my fabulous lifestyle of staying home and watching tennis. But before anyone gets too envious we have TV with basic cable here at work, including ESPN and ESPN2, but not the Tennis Channel (and yes, my productivity is in inverse proportion to the excitement of the matches on ESPN). So I'm missing Andre just like everyone else and since I've been working late I haven't even been able to see the rerun matches in prime time. But it's looking like an excellent weekend!

And don't forget to call your local cable company and ask for the Tennis Channel!

Good God, even when Andy isn't playing Patrick McEnroe still makes the match all about him somehow. HATE. So Mardy Fish is out there playing a match and every other comment from Patrick is about Andy WRT Mardy. Mardy lived with Andy, Mardy went to the prom with Andy, blah blah blah Andycakes. SHUT UP.

According to ESPN, Marcelo Rios is retiring.

OMG, I know! I mean, does Pee Mac wanna dissolve himself in Andy's Gatorade just so he can pass through ARodd's dick and touch in from the inside? Jeezus! Isn't his wife jealous?

I think Jer2002 has coined a new TWoP phrase: Classic! And oh, so true.

Tried to get online earlier to post my Hallelujah that ESPN in its infinite wisdom [/sarcasm] has returned to a NORMAL scoreboard. Thank God, Almighty! Praise be! Etc.

I was watching the WTA match and couldn't concentrate on Venus/Amy Frazier because I was fascinated by actually being able to -- brace yourself -- follow the scoring! I know it's a shock, but it's true.

Congrats! The little people win again.

Today's coverage was so awesome. First, Lindsey and Venus played a close match which was cool. But the men's match was like totally awesome cause there wasn't an American in the match so Pee Mac was virtually silent. Praise the Freaking Lord! He did, however get an Andy mention in once though, that I remember. UGH.

Roddick was mentioned a couple of times. The only other title Haas won this year was against him in Houston. Apparently, Haas has won the last 4 matches between the two.

Both of those matches today were great. That was Lindsay's best win in a long time. Venus showed flashes of her old form, but she struggled again on her forehand. She's still got a long way to go when you consider she couldn't beat a player she's owned for a long time.

Wow, Kiefer's gotten a lot better since I've seen one of his matches. He's a much better volleyer than I remember. Haas looks like he's finally getting back to where he was.

Today was well handled by ESPN2 with the updates of the men's match during the women's. They even skipped a few commercials to show coverage during the women's breaks.

Oh, and message for Tommy Haas: My Cabbage Patch Kid called from 1982; she wants her hairdo back.

I still thought Pee Mac (love that) was talking way too much about Andy and Andre. The best was Dicky V stopping the love fest cold with his casual mention of Haas beating Andy in Houston. Heh. And I like Haas's hair! (Well, I really don't, but he is so dang good looking that the hair doesn't matter a wit.)

And Amen sister to the old scoreboard! However, really pissed about ESPN not living up to their part of the bargain with the US Open Series. They made it seem that all the tennis will be on their channels and didn't once mention early rounds on The Tennis Channel or the other networks that will be doing coverage. I've mentioned it already, but what use is this Series if the casual fan doesn't know to look elsewhere for some more tennis?

Oh and another annoying ESPNism: did anyone else catch the aerial shot of Disneyland during the coverage Friday night from Stanford? Um, yeah, way to plug the parent company there ESPN. Jeesh. Why be so damn obvious. I thought Disneyland was in Anaheim, how close is that to Stanford anyway?

I didn't see that Juanita, but why don't I have any trouble believing it? My latest pet peeve is this: I don't need to hear about Mary Jo Fernandez' pregnancy every 10 minutes. And it's not always her. I can't remember who was calling the Venus/Lindsey match with her but when she commented that the fire alarm had gone off in the players (and her) hotel that morning at 3:30 am, he had to say "And of course, you're escaping for two" or something to that effect. Yes, there would have been no need to run had she not been pregnant. Idiot.

Hah! Oh, it's about a 5-hour drive if yer speedin'. But to be fair, it's about a 2 1/2 hour helicoptor ride.

SI's Jon Wertheim gives his take on the Top 5 tennis commentators here, which is sure to open a can of worms on this thread given his number 4 pick. And am I the only person who LIKES Cliff Drysdale?

Cliff D. was the voice of tennis for ESPN for literally a generation, so most certainly, he would have some fans out there. I thought Fred Stolle was good during the 90s as well, although maybe not up-to-speed with the modern game.

The only top former player I do not have accounts of doing commentary would be Margaret Court.

I like Cliff Drysdale quite a bit actually. I think he's informative and unbiased, for the most part anyway. Wertheim wrote that he was just listing the best American announcers so maybe that's why Cliffie didn't get a mention.

As is usual with Wertheim, I pretty much disagree with all his picks:

Jim Courier is okay - not too annoying and does provide some useful information and tips. But the fact that anyone, even Wertheim, would select him as the best tennis announcer just shows the sorry state of tennis broadcasting.

John McEnroe - I am really the wrong person to judge him as a commentator because I almost always mute the sound when he is on and since he is on almost every network at almost every tournament that means that I watch a lot of silent tennis. When I do listen to him even for only a few minutes he just irritates me. I do not understand why ALL the networks seem to think they HAVE to have him. People seem to have forgotten what a complete and total shit he was as a player. His tantrums have become just a big joke now but, as someone who was watching tennis back when he was playing, believe me it was not a joke. I remember a match where he took a handful of sawdust out of his pocket and threw it in the face of a middle-aged linesWOMAN just because he didn't like her call. He would physically threaten linespeople and scream obscenities at them and even spit in their faces. It was no joke, it was no act. He was, and still is as far as I'm concerned, a total creep.

Mary Carillo - I think she's not bad but she's kind of overrated. I actually think she was better a few years ago. She seems to have become kind of out of touch with the younger players today. She spends too much time telling anecdotal stories and not enough time analyzing.

Pat McEnroe - Bland, uninformative, madly in love with Roddick. Simply a terrible announcer.

Bud Collins - He is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about tennis so for those reasons he should be broadcasting tennis in some capacity. But he is better in small doses so I think his current role as an interviewer and occasional commentator is best for him.

Ted Robinson - Can't begin to imagine why Wertheim wants him broadcasting more tennis. I think his US Open work last year was terrible. Of course, I didn't listen to him whenever he was paired with McEnroe so maybe that's when he was good.

Sadly, I cannot think of even one announcer I enjoy listening to. I watch a lot of silent tennis as well. I watched today's Venus/Davenport match mostly without sound as I have been finding Mary Joe Fernandez especially insipid these days.

[rant] Today's Roddick/Ljubicic match on NBC had that "due to the length of this match we are moving forward to X point in the match" not once but twice. And it was especially bad the first time since Roddick had lost the first set and they made the announcement early in the second set. So, um, thanks for letting me know in advance, essentially, that Roddick wins the second set. The tiebreaker was really thrilling knowing who won it before it began. HATE [/rant]

Did anyone see the match (I think it was Kiefer's first-round match in Toronto) where Brad Gilbert went into the announcing booth to chat with Cliff and Patrick? After talking about the match they were watching and Roddick's schedule and stuff for the summer Patrick started in with his love affair with Roddick and Brad just stopped talking--he wouldn't respond to that gushing at all. Loved it.

I didn't catch that match and I'm glad. Because I like Kiefer. He's got an interesting, dangerous game. And he's been doing really well in the hard court season, so what's there not to talk about? Roddick, who's not playing, guys, that's what.

Gilbert was talking about Kiefer and how he was supposed to be the "next Andre" (which, honestly, they need to retire talking about that) but you know wanted to keep talking about Roddick. I do like that Gilbert called Cliff "Cliffy."

Thank you Roger. Thank you.

Amen.

I love Roger Federer. His game is extraordinary. So beautiful and effortless. As for Roddick, I don't have a problem with him. He can be fun to watch and seems to have fun playing to the crowd. However, I find myself rooting against him when that ass, Patrick McEnroe, fawns all over him. Did you hear him talking about who he thought was going to win yesterday. Of course he thought that this was Roddick's day. Gee that was a surprise. Mmm I wonder what made him think that, seeing as though Roddick had only beaten him once in 7 tries.

Oh jeez. Patrick get real. Just move to Mass. already and get it done. I'm sick of his shit. Beyond sick.

Possibly because Roddick beat Federer at this tournament last year (I think) and that since Roddick won this tournament and the U.S. Open last year, he might have thought Roddick to be the better hard court player.

Regardless of who beats whom, it's clear that Roddick and Federer are so far ahead of the other men's players, so there's going to be plenty of Roddick-Federer finals to watch for awhile.

While that's a fair assumption, it doesn't take into account how much better Federer began playing post US Open last year. Roddick had a great summer last year, and that resulted in his ending the year at #1. But Federer began his march to dominance after the Open. He's not the same player he was this time last year.

Even with Roddick's year last year, Federer's year this year eclipses it. Of his 8 tournament wins, three are Championship Series and two are Slams. And he won Indian Wells, indicating he's got the skills to win on American hard courts. Some acknowledgement of that from McEnroe would have been nice. But no. It's all Andy all the time.

Goddamn, I think Pee Mac has rubbed off on Cliff And Mal, I swear. So Mardy Fish and Andre Agassi's match from the Cincinnatti tournament was shown tonight. During the course of the match, the Olympics was brought up. Who's going to the Olympics with Mardy? Andy, of course. Who did Mardy live with? Andy, of course. Who did he share a limo to the prom with? Andy, of course. HATE.

I don't have a problem with Andy Roddick either. The problem is Patrick Mcenroe's obvious obsession with him. It's scary. I swear it seems like he is going to orgasm everytime Andy hits a winner. I think Andy is well aware that he is not the best player out there. He still has a long way to go before he gets to Roger's brilliance. But I like that Andy does have a personality and he seems to have fun out there. I love how Pat was talking about Andy again the other day and Cliff Drysdale cut him right off.

I love Mal. I think he needs to stop talking so much (every second of the match does not need to be commented on) but he made very good observations about Andre not being mentally into the match and asked Andre about it instead of kissing his ass. Loved Andre's comment about Mal being astute, and he seemed quite a bit surprised that a tennis commentator would call him on his mental lapses.

Not only that, he won a Masters Series event on clay this year (Hamburg), and a 2nd clay court tournament (Gstaad, Switzerland). He just might be the next man to complete a career Grand Slam. Interestingly, though, FedEx can still have those occasions where he lapses and mis-hits quite a bit, but I think that's more a technique issue more than anything

I think he can win a real Grand Slam, not just a career. During Sunday's final one of the commentators mentioned that he's working on developing a drop shot like Coria's, so he's dedicating himself to closing the tiny gaps that still remain in his game. His game is very reliant upon his timing and movement, so if he's feeling tired or sluggish he'll be misfiring, but even his B game is usually good enough.

He turned a corner at the end of last year and his goals no longer revolve around winning this tournament or that tournament. He mentioned in an interview that he's looking at history, now. His toughest opponents aren't the guys across the net. He's playing against the Lavers, Borgs and Samprases.

Who knows how the next 5-10 years will play out for him, but if he can maintain his fitness and avoid any serious injuries, he has the talent to be considered one of the greatest players ever.

I think Federer is way ahead of all the other players including Roddick.

Worse yet, I think Roddick thinks the same thing. His plaintive "he can't get any better, can he?" after he lost Sunday's final indicated someone who thinks he's looking for something that he doesn't believe exists.

I credit Roddick for wanting to improve his game to be competitive with Federer, but these are steps he should have taken while he was still a junior. Changing up your game at the pro ranks is difficult. Rather than learning how to hit a 150mph serve, he'd have done well to learn a one-handed backhand and transition game.

He shouldn't be so surprised -- Mal was playing on the tour before he became a commentator, so I'm sure he recognized the signs of a mental lapse.

On a different note, I noticed that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati were playing doubles last week. Have they reunited, or are they preparing for the Olympics?

Whoa! Federer just lost in the first round to Hrbaty. Anywho I think Federer is 0-2 against him. I still he think he better than pretty much any other player on tour.

And in other news, I was almost tricked into thinking Andy Roddick was playing considering the number of times he was mentioned during the match commentary. I am surprised I didn't hear them say how Federer's loss would open the door for Andy to win the tournament.