Top Spin Blog » ATP Masters http://www.topspinblog.com Tennis Blog Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:54:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 In a Nation of 1.3 Billion, Tennis in Front of Very Few http://www.topspinblog.com/2009/10/in-a-nation-of-13-billion-tennis-in-front-of-very-few/ http://www.topspinblog.com/2009/10/in-a-nation-of-13-billion-tennis-in-front-of-very-few/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:38:42 +0000 Joe Samuel Starnes http://www.topspinblog.com/?p=1123 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Imagine traveling all the way to China to play tennis in front of almost nobody.  The nearly non-existent crowd for the fourth round match between Gael Monfils and Ivan Ljubicic yesterday on the grandstand court at the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 tournament was comparable to a high school tennis match on a cold, windy spring day.  There couldn’t have been more than 75 people in the crowd, and other matches I saw earlier in the week, including high-profile night matches such as Rafael Nadal against Tommy Robredo, seem to be poorly attended.

I shouldn’t complain, though.  It has been great to get up this week and see matches live on the Tennis Channel, and hear the nondescript approach of the low-key announcers (One, I believe, is Robbie Koenig, and not sure of the other’s name — Jason Goodall, perhaps, or Doug Adler?  It’s hard to tell — they never draw attention to themselves, unlike the blabbering American announcers John McEnroe, Mary Carillo and Justin Gimelstob.)

The Shanghai tournament is studio tennis at its best.

In a Nation of 1.3 Billion, Tennis in Front of Very Few

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.topspinblog.com/2009/10/in-a-nation-of-13-billion-tennis-in-front-of-very-few/feed/ 0