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Off-Court at the US Open |
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SUGIYAMA PLANS
RETIREMENT Japanese
veteran Ai Sugiyama is planning to retire at the end of the 2009 season with
her last event scheduled to be at home in Tokyo at the Toray Pan Pacific
Open. The
former world number-eight singles and number-one doubles player told national
network Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) that she could not see herself
competing next season, after she was eliminated in the first round of the
singles event in the US Open. The
34-year-old Sugiyama, who has made 62 Grand Slam appearances since becoming a
professional in 1992, will make her final competitive appearance at the Toray
Pan Pacific Open in Japan later this month, NHK said. "Every
year, every season, there are times when I can see myself playing in the
following season ... I take breaks during the off-season and get going after
that," she said in the interview in New York. "I
go through different psychological states and then see clear visions for my
near future. But right now, to be honest, I cannot see the next season for
myself," Sugiyama said. US OPEN FIRST
WEEK RECORDS The
first week of the 2009 US Open saw record attendance and increased viewership
on both network and broadcast television, as well as online on usopen.org. Following
a record opening day combined day and night session crowd of 60,066, the US
Open finished the first week with three consecutive days of attendance
topping 61,000, the first time the tournament has achieved multiple crowds in
excess of 61,000. In
all, the first week attendance was 423,427, a figure greater than the total
attendance of any US Open prior to 1991, and the tournament set the all-time
daily gate record (day and night combined) of 61,554 on Friday 29 August. USOpen.org
posted a record 23,373,675 visits in the first week of the tournament, a 71%
increase from last year, ESPN2’s average ratings up 13% from last year and
Tennis Channel registering its highest-ever rating for its inaugural
broadcast on Saturday 5 September. CHALLENGES Some
512 challenges were made through 9 September and, interestingly, it seems the
women players are marginally more cautious about using the replay system than
the men. Men
players challenged 307 times, of which only 80 proved correct and 227 were
unsuccessful resulting in a 26.1% of challenges won. The
women, however, only totalled 205 times, with only 56 successful challenges
and 149 incorrect ones, resulting in 27.3% success rate. |
CHAMPIONS
INVITATIONAL The
US Open Champions Invitational has a new format and a host of former Grand
Slam champions and finalist taking part. For
the first time the competition is adopting the fan-friendly World Team Tennis
format and will feature 3 four-player teams and each team playing two matches
a day through Saturday 12 September. Each
match consists of one set each of men’s and women’s singles, men’s and
women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The
three teams will be coached by and named after Pat Cash, Billie Jean King and
Ivan Lendl. Team
Cash features Iva Majoli, Hana Mandlikova, Todd Martin and Ilie Nastase. Team
King features Gigi Fernandez, Mary Jo Fernandez, Luke Jensen and Stan Smith Team
Lendl features Jimmy Arias, Tarcy Austin, Conchita Martinez and Guillermo
Vilas In
Wednesday’s opening match, Team Lendl defeated Team King by the un-tennis-like
score of 24-16. Both
teams will square off against Team Cash over the next three days to complete
the round robin. “I
love team tennis,” Mary Jo Fernandez said. “Played
three or four seasons of it and it was such a great experience. I was really
excited when I saw the format went to this.” For
those not yet familiar with the WTT format, here’s how it works, compliments
of USOpen.org: - Five
sets—called events—are guaranteed, one each for the five major
disciplines—men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed
doubles. In-match substitution is allowed, though it did not happen, and Rick
Leach and Ilana Kloss were on standby as Super-subs in the event of an injury
during mixed doubles. Each
game is to four points—scored one, two, three, game—with a single point to
determine the game at 3-3. The receiver has the option of which court the
server must play to. The exception is mixed doubles, when the game point is
served gender-to-gender. The
first team to five games wins the set, with a first-to-five tiebreaker—again,
a single point at 4-4 decides all—if the teams split the first eight games.
The final score is the total number of games won over all five sets. Other
wrinkles include the playing of let serves and the encouragement of fan
interaction during play. |
UNHAPPY
VIEWERS The
USTA is discovering that two cable outlets, ESPN2 and Tennis Channel, are not
necessarily better than the one, USA Network, that viewers have been watching
for 25 years. There
were complaints following the handover from CBS to The Tennis Channel on
Saturday night when Andy Roddick lost to John Isner and many viewers were left
hanging, unable to pick up the transmission via subscription providers. USA’s
departure from sports enabled ESPN to bid for the television rights with a
lucrative $140 million package over six years but the cable network had prior
commitments on Saturday and Sunday nights and therefore could not fill every
time slot that USA once did, which opened the door for Tennis Channel. ESPN
and Tennis Channel, through various deals, now share the cable rights to the
three other Grand Slams and, through its US Open deal, the Tennis Channel holds
the exclusive rights to the 11 am to 1 pm time slot over the first 5 weekdays
of the tournament, after which ESPN2 took over creating confusion. USA
provided continuous daily coverage from 11 am. The
Tennis Channel being in the mix is unsurprising as it is fully devoted to the
sport and the USTA has part-funded it. “The
USTA wants to do everything it can to make Tennis Channel as successful as
the Golf Channel,” said Barry Frank, the Executive Vice President for IMG
Sports Media. The
Golf Channel acquired the rights to all the early-round PGA Tour events when it
had 70 million full-time subscribers and now has around 82 million. The
Tennis Channel has 25 million subscribers but doubles that during the Grand
Slams, when its distribution expands through free previews shown by cable and
satellite operators. The
USTA has received complaints from viewers about the patchy coverage and lack
of continuity of matches. J.
Pierce O’Neil, the Chief Business Officer for the association, said the
network’s reach was considered before making the deal. “It
was a concern, but when we considered the pluses and minuses of the three-way
partnership, we thought it was one worth taking on,” he said, referring to
CBS, ESPN2 and Tennis Channel mix. “We
know Tennis Channel is committed to expanding its distribution, and we think
they’ll succeed.” With
the Tennis Channel televising parts of the US Open the risk of riling fans
who cannot find the same satisfaction, born of old habits viewing USA Network,
remains. One
big benefit of USA’s departure, however, is that matches are now streamed
live, on USOpen.org, Tennischannel.com and ESPN360.com but not all fans want to
watch their tennis online. |
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