Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in four sets yesterday to capture the French Open championship. Federer played excellent tennis and was right there in the first two sets before winning the third. If he had won either of those, he may have been able to carry that momentum to win the match. As it is, Nadal continued his domination of Federer on clay court. It was fun watching such a great rivalry be renewed, but I was sad Federer couldn't pull this one out.
I stand by what I wrote a couple of days ago, though, in saying that Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time. He has captured the career Grand Slam and has won more major tournaments than anyone in history. I understand that he has an overall losing record to Nadal, but Nadal doesn't have the career numbers that Federer does, at least not yet. Nadal's game has come a long way in recent years, jumping from primarily a clay court specialist to a more complete player on multiple surfaces. I will be open to revisiting this debate if Nadal catches Federer in number of total majors, but for now Federer is still the all-time king in my book.
Showing posts with label Rafael Nadal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rafael Nadal. Show all posts
Monday, June 6, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Time for NBC to move out of the Dark Ages
Roger Federer defeated Novak Djokovic yesterday in the semifinals of the French Open, marking the end of Djokovic's near-record 40 plus match winning streak. The problem was, much of the United States was unable to see the match live on television. NBC decided to start its coverage at 11 a.m. throughout the nation, which was great for people in the Eastern Time Zone because that's right about the time the match started. As for the rest of us? Well, enjoy it on tape delay.
Tape delay may have been okay in years past (although I still can't remember ever thinking highly of it), but in today's technology-savvy age it is a downright archaic idea. If tennis wants to generate interest, it needs to ensure that its top matches are available live throughout the entire USA. Likewise with NBC, if it wants to get the best ratings, it stands to reason that more people would want to watch live tennis. NBC has also done its tape delay business with the Olympics for many years. It makes a little more sense there, but I still think everyone would be better off if those events were shown live as well.
Federer-Djokovic was one of those big-time matches with lots of anticipation that just don't come along every day. It's a shame that the entire country wasn't able to see it live on television. I had the foresight to be able to watch the match live online on nbcsports.com, but I don't think that the casual fan would go to such lengths to plan to watch such a match, just as I think they wouldn't want to watch a match on television they already knew the result of.
Another thing I'm not too fond of is that it is often ridiculously hard to find out when on earth these matches are scheduled to start. After five or ten minutes of poking around varying websites, I found that the Federer-Djokovic and Rafael Nadal-Andy Murray matches were going to be played on the same court, accompanied by a start time. Nadal-Murray was first, but there was no timetable given for when the second match would start, nor a time between matches given. Furthermore, I'm still not sure if Nadal-Murray was on television or streaming online at all, which is ridiculous for a Grand Slam semifinal. Tennis and NBC need to fix this if they both want to be considered major players among their competitors.
It's a shame that I feel compelled to spend so much time talking about this rather than the actual tennis, but I feel that all helps illustrate my point. If NBC can't show the entire matches live, they should have them start on another network and pick up the coverage throughout the nation at 11. This is still not ideal, but in this scenario, at least the entire country would be able to have the option of watching live on television.
Anyway, Federer looked like a blast from the past on Friday, knocking out Djokovic in four sets. Federer showed once again that he is the greatest tennis player of all time. He's still playing some good tennis, even if he is a bit past his prime. Early tomorrow morning, he faces his long-time rival Nadal for the French Open title. I can tell you with a surety that this match is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. MT and will be available live nationwide on NBC. At least they are doing something sensible for the final, if not for the semis. I, for one, can tell you that I will be getting up to watch.
Tape delay may have been okay in years past (although I still can't remember ever thinking highly of it), but in today's technology-savvy age it is a downright archaic idea. If tennis wants to generate interest, it needs to ensure that its top matches are available live throughout the entire USA. Likewise with NBC, if it wants to get the best ratings, it stands to reason that more people would want to watch live tennis. NBC has also done its tape delay business with the Olympics for many years. It makes a little more sense there, but I still think everyone would be better off if those events were shown live as well.
Federer-Djokovic was one of those big-time matches with lots of anticipation that just don't come along every day. It's a shame that the entire country wasn't able to see it live on television. I had the foresight to be able to watch the match live online on nbcsports.com, but I don't think that the casual fan would go to such lengths to plan to watch such a match, just as I think they wouldn't want to watch a match on television they already knew the result of.
Another thing I'm not too fond of is that it is often ridiculously hard to find out when on earth these matches are scheduled to start. After five or ten minutes of poking around varying websites, I found that the Federer-Djokovic and Rafael Nadal-Andy Murray matches were going to be played on the same court, accompanied by a start time. Nadal-Murray was first, but there was no timetable given for when the second match would start, nor a time between matches given. Furthermore, I'm still not sure if Nadal-Murray was on television or streaming online at all, which is ridiculous for a Grand Slam semifinal. Tennis and NBC need to fix this if they both want to be considered major players among their competitors.
It's a shame that I feel compelled to spend so much time talking about this rather than the actual tennis, but I feel that all helps illustrate my point. If NBC can't show the entire matches live, they should have them start on another network and pick up the coverage throughout the nation at 11. This is still not ideal, but in this scenario, at least the entire country would be able to have the option of watching live on television.
Anyway, Federer looked like a blast from the past on Friday, knocking out Djokovic in four sets. Federer showed once again that he is the greatest tennis player of all time. He's still playing some good tennis, even if he is a bit past his prime. Early tomorrow morning, he faces his long-time rival Nadal for the French Open title. I can tell you with a surety that this match is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. MT and will be available live nationwide on NBC. At least they are doing something sensible for the final, if not for the semis. I, for one, can tell you that I will be getting up to watch.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
