So for as long as I can remember, TSN has been the major tennis carrier in Canada. I remember a time when Rogers Sportsnet was CTV Sportsnet and carried "Sanex-WTA tour" events (poorly might I add). Being a tennis fan in Canada isn't easy that's for sure. I have had a lot of gripes with TSN's coverage over the years and clearly I am still bitter about it. 1) It urks me when TSN goes to taped coverage (a slam or masters 1000) when LIVE tennis is going on. They do this to make sure their time slot they have allotted to the matches isn't extended, because God forbid That's Hockey 10 in the middle of summer or whatever has to be pushed back (yeah I know this is a hockey nation and I don't know what follows the tennis coverage, I'm sure it varies but that was just an example). 2) Slicing and Dicing of QF, SF, and F matches to fit time slots. I'm sorry but these matches are the crown jewel of any tournament, and to splice these up and cut off trophy presentations (re-air of AO men's and women's final since they were played at 330 am et) is utterly ridiculous. 3) Non-flexible coverage. The Roger's cup has been plagued with rain over the years and TSN just gives up on covering it. One instance in particular bugs me. In the 2009 Rogers Cup for the women, the comeback mom, on the eve of her second US Open title as it were, was to take on Jelena Jankovic in the QF. It rained, but the match was eventually played around 10 pm et. It was the best match that no one saw. I mean, what gives?! You have a second channel, TSN 2, as well as online streaming capabilities. 4) Horrible commentary. Tracy Austin and Mary Carillo are world-class commentators so I give props to TSN for bringing them on for the women's event. Brian Williams and Rod Black do not do their homework at all and are absolutely abysmal. ESPECIALLY Brian Williams. Wow I mean he truly offers nothing valuable to speak of for the viewer. All he does is repeat the score a billion times and then tell us what country the player is from as if they are playing for their country. No, this is not fed cup or davis cup or the olympics, on the tour, they pretty much are playing for THEMSELVES. Ugh. Rage. Peter Burwash is alright, I mean he's got opinions, I don't necessarily always agree but I can deal with that. Robert Bettauer, I feel like he knows the game but is seriously disconnected in that he doesn't follow the tours which is kind of a problem when you're interviewing the players and analyzing their matches.
This year is the first year that the men's and women's events will be played in the same week. I think that the PR people are spinning this as "virtually combined", when in reality they would have much rather kept the events on separate weeks because they will get more TV viewership/revenue and more fan revenue because let's face it, if you're a tennis fan in Canada, you're going to both if at all possible and having both events simultaneously played out makes this a much more challenging task. Also the media hoop-la of the first week gives a fantastic lead-in to the second week and that way all of Canada knows that the Rogers cup is happening. Now it's sort of like a one-shot deal so they've got to get their promotions right with no chance for error. But this was out of Tennis Canada's hands. The tours are moving towards combined men's and women's events because that really is tennis at its finest (see the grand slams). I suppose a bunch of mini-slams is the way of the future. There is something to be said for the men's or women's only events too though. In Canada, we have two great facilities and a rotation of event's is done. I can foresee a time in the future where one year, Toronto holds the combined event and the next year, Montreal holds the combined event. Obviously both grounds will need to be expanded and you are also left with a venue that doesn't get used every other year. There was talk of sort of having this happen in a very bizarre way. I believe there were talks of having one half of the men's draw and one half of the women's draw playing in each city, then flying out the QF's from Toronto to Montreal and vice-versa. It's an interesting concept but I mean logistically it just wasn't going to happen. They would be opening themselves up to so many issues: 1) un-fair rest for one player over the next (person flying out vs. person not flying out) 2) different court conditions (speed, bounce...) 3) Weather issues 4) Inconvenience for the players 5) All-around confusion for the casual fan...so ya, just a myriad of problems, which is why this was never going to fly. The positive in this whole she-bang is that Tennis Canada got the week they wanted, which is the first week of the major US Open Series events. Most players will make the Rogers Cup their first stop on the US Open Series which means good fields, and early arrivals. Early arrivals are great for fans to come by on qualies weekend and check out their favourite players. Also, being back to back events, there have been many instances where the women's Roger's Cup has been struck by withdrawals, most recently, Maria Sharapova, who went 3 sets in the final in Cincinnati and then pulled the rip cord on the Rogers Cup. She had also played the week before in Stanford. It's tough going back to back to back, yes but I feel like the players should support the biggest events on the tour instead of playing a premier event and a premier 5 when you know you committed to the next premier 5. She should have just played both premier 5's. Just sayin'.
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