IT'S PRIMETIME IN THE BIG APPLE

The U.S. Open: the most exciting tournament of all

By Ron Cioffi
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

The U.S. Open bills itself as the toughest tennis tournament in the world. OK, it is. But, more importantly, the competition at Flushing Meadow is certainly the sport's most exciting and entertaining two weeks.

The U.S. Open took this year's men's final to a new and glorious level. Compared to the flat final men's pairings at the first three Slams, the Open's marquee presentation of Pete Sampras versus Andre Agassi was all excitement, all glitz, all primetime.

Consider the first Slam offerings of the year: 16th-seed Thomas Johansson pummels highly-favored Marat Safin to win the Australian Open, surging Juan Carlos Ferrero falls to old, faceless veteran Albert Costa (he hadn't won a tournament in 66 tries) at Roland Garros and David Nalbandian goes from obscurity to the Wimbledon final before being blown off court by No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. Not a marquee matchup in the bunch compared to Pete's 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Andre.

Enter the Open, where the music thrives and the legends survive.

Starting with the concert atmosphere of the Arthur Ashe Kids' Day to the primetime women's final headlining Aretha Franklin, the Open rolled out a megawatt show with a Broadway attitude. Throw in the celeb regulars (Mike Wallace, Tom Brokaw, Spike Lee, etc.) and rotating cast of Hollywood stars (Matthew Perry is the tour's notable almost boyFriend), you've got the electric juice which makes New York, well … New York.

The Open thrives in that atmosphere, employing a schedule which makes it unique and flashing among the other Slams. And, it's this schedule which adds controversy and entertainment fuel to the fire.

MORE MATCHES WHEN YOU CAN SEE THEM
The Open has the most thrilling night schedule among the Slams. (The Australian Open also plays at night.) It shifts a couple of high-class matchups from the seven-hour day session to its 7 p.m. Eastern time session. Fans who can't get to a TV during the day or even have to go to work can catch the top matches in at home or in person. While some stars feed off of the attention (Pistol Pete hasn't lost at night), the shift to evening play can drain some players. But, hey, they get paid to play and the viewing fans are the big winners. It's under the lights that Jimmy Connors made his historic run at Flushing Meadow and Todd Martin made his illustrious five-set comeback last year.

Another scheduling strategy hikes the entertainment value of the last weekend: the overnighter. Only in Flushing Meadow are the men's and women's Grand Slam finalist given no day off between their semifinal win and the deciding match. This demand puts the Open into that "toughest tournament" status. This schedule has begotten "Super Saturday," which presents the men's semis and the women's final in one day. Accordingly, the women's semis are set for Friday instead of the traditional Thursday. What you get out of this plan is more tennis when people can watch it, meaning more dollars and more exposure for the sport. While the USTA gets criticism for making the Open more commercial, it also unveils more tennis for more people.

There is no doubt that the Saturday/Sunday schedule deadened Sampras' chances in his '00 final against Safin and the '01 final versus Hewitt. He went down twice in three-set crashes. Both players are at least 10 years his junior, which means 10 years less of motoring across tennis courts around the globe.

This year's Sampras model had two luxuries: facing 30-something Andre Agassi and a few hours more to rest than his finals opponent. Sampras went out Saturday at 11 a.m. to whip Sjeng Schalken in straight sets. Agassi had to contend with Hewitt and played a longer match well into the afternoon. Agassi may be the fittest athlete on the tour. (Commentator Mary Carillo tells and retells the tale of him running up and down a hill, forwards and backwards, to build his endurance.) Still, he didn't have the gas Sunday to whack away with his brand of punishing groundstrokes long enough to down Pete.

The great testament to these two remarkable athletes – among the greatest in any sport – is their perseverance in the cauldron and spotlight of the U.S. Open in the twilight of their careers.

Give me some scores
The USA network, which showed 11 hours of the Open on most weekdays to American TV viewers, tanked one of its best ideas in the first week.

Like CBS, USA started using an evergreen scoreboard on the screen, showing the score of all sets played. But, after a few days, it took down this important addition to its presentation.

This is what USA started with … if you started watching a match during the third set, you'd see a score like:

Player A	4 6 2
Player B	6 3 1

Right before the next point, they would show you the game score: 40-30, for example.

Tennis fans need this type of scoring, especially in the Slams. Showing the set scores and the game scores would even be better.

USA is providing fans with more than just a view of the matches; they are providing tennis news. For many of us who have access to a TV during the day (I love working at home), USA is a vehicle to find out the progress of the matches. I can't spend all day just watching tennis. I peak in during my lunch break or when matches are especially compelling. That evergreen scoreboard keeps you up-to-date and alerts the viewer when it's time to go back to the PC or when it's time to sit your butt in front of the boob tube and watch the tournament.

Another network – Fox – was employing a new, but disappointing scoreboard during its televised matches in the hardcourt, summer season. The numbers were sorely lacking important info. For instance, the one-line graphic says: Player A 30 15 Player B. Great, we know the game score. Beside it, we would see "2nd set." That gives us no idea of who won the first set, much less the game score of the second set.

Tennis scoring is as difficult as any in sports. Try teaching 4-6, 2-1 (15-40) to a six-year-old. The bottom line is that you can't tell the score of a tennis match without the score of all sets played and the current game score. Not having that information visible at all times, is akin to showing the number of hits in a baseball game and not bothering with the runs.

Considering how much clutter sports and news shows dump onto our large-screen TVs, there's plenty of room for the whole story.