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IS
THE NIGHTTIME THE RIGHT TIME?
Women’s
final gets primetime spotlight
By
Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net
FLUSHING
MEADOWS, N.Y., AUG. 27 – For
the first time in U.S. Open history, a Grand Slam tournament will
feature the women’s final under the lights in prime-time.
The final will air at 8:00 pm on Saturday, Sept. 8 on CBS.
Good
idea or bad idea?
Clearly,
some of the players are heavily in favor of this move to prime-time,
including reigning U.S. Open champion Venus Williams. She said
on Sunday, the day before the final Grand Slam of the year starts
that “I think it’s very exciting. I think it’s
a great, great move for us. More than anything, what I think about
it is I hope I’m there in that final.”
When
the announcement came out in March that the women were making
the prime-time move, Monica Seles also gave the decision a thumbs
up, saying, “This is a great example of how far women’s
tennis has come and we are very thankful to the USTA and CBS for
giving us this opportunity to play in prime-time and expose the
sport to the biggest audience ever.”
In
tennisreporters.net opinion, the concept of scheduling
the women’s final with twinkling stars overhead has its merits
and demerits. Let’s look at the different aspects of this
decision to feature a Grand Slam final in the evening.
First,
there is no doubt that prime-time exposure is ideal exposure.
If you want people to sit up and take notice of something being
televised, then televise it when the majority of people are watching.
The downside here is that we’re talking prime-time on a Saturday
night – date night, go out without the kids night –
and most people will probably not skip dinner and the movies to
watch unless it turns out to be a very attractive final pairing.
Therefore, it is conceivable that the audience for this year’s
U.S. Open women’s final could go down and not higher for
the broadcast coverage.
Second,
on a day long nicknamed “Super Saturday,” the women’s
final usually received short shrift by being overshadowed by the
men’s semifinals. In the past, the women were sandwiched
between the two men’s matches and the two women players never
had a specific time when their match would get underway –
that was truly unfair and everyone thought so. After a brief stint
in 1996 and ’97 when the women’s final was shifted to
Sunday along with the men’s final, the women returned to
their Saturday time slot. In an effort to make things fairer to
the finalists, the women’s match was scheduled after the
two men’s semis in hopes of giving the ladies a realistic
idea of when their match would get underway, but if the men’s
matches went five long sets that theory was thrown out the window.
Now
that the women’s final will be the featured entertainment
on Saturday night it has its own wings and will undoubtedly receive
the importance it deserves. But tennisreporters.net isn’t
convinced that holding a Grand Slam final at night is to the optimum
advantage of the players. Although night matches are a part of
a players life, scheduling yourself for a night match of such
significance requires careful planning – waking not too early
or too late, eating meals at the right intervals, etc. –
strategy that comes more naturally during the day.
GIVE
THE WOMEN THEIR DAY
We
believe that the U.S. Open should turn back the clock and become
traditionalists and align with the other Grand Slams. Translation
– the women’s final should be given the focus they deserve
and be the sole highlight of Saturday’s schedule. The other
Grand Slams all have the same schedule – a schedule that
should be the law and order for Grand Slams – the women’s
semifinals on Thursday, the men’s semifinals on Friday, the
women’s final on Saturday and the men’s final on Sunday.
True, reverting to tradition will take away a few sessions and
some revenue for the USTA in terms of ticket sales, and would
undoubtedly not make the host network CBS too happy.
The
players should be given the best advantage when playing a Grand
Slam and there is certainly a major disadvantage to the schedule
as it is now at the U.S. Open. Every player should have the day
off between a Grand Slam semifinal and final and it doesn’t
work that way here in New York. Both the women and the men play
their semis and final matches on back-to-back days – the
women play their semifinals on Friday with the final being on
Saturday, the men play their semifinals on Saturday with the final
being on Sunday. The concept of forcing players who survive five
matches at a Grand Slam into competing in the two most important
matches of the fortnight on consecutive days is simply not good
planning and should not be allowed.
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