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Tennis Channel — Why Not Replay Karlovic-Stepanek Ace Record Classic?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:40:29 +0000

Tennis Channel has been an absolute blessing for American tennis fans who otherwise are treated by our networks with haphazard derision. But one Tennis Channel programming decision this week leading up to the Spain versus Czech Republic Davis Cup final starting 10 a.m. ET on Friday I don’t understand. Why not get the rights to replay the Radek Stepanek-Ivo Karlovic singles match in September in which Karlovic hit an all-time record 78 aces and still lost in five sets? Karlovic broke the previous world record of 55 aces by a whopping 23 and still lost! The only comparison in all of sports I can think of is in baseball: In 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game for 12 innings and still managed to lose in the 13th.

I am sure I am not the only one who wants to see this match instead of the currently scheduled week of boring replays of Spain easily beating Israel, or the heartbreaking loss by Blake against Karlovic. I am curious if Stepanek didn’t just give up on Karlovic’s serve in some games, letting aces go by that might not have been aces, distorting the record book by returner’s indifference. I desperately want to see this match that produced the greatest anomaly in the history of tennis statistics. Come’on Tennis Channel, work it out somehow. But I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on the fledgling network. Without it, there would be no way we could see live coverage of Spain and the Czech Republic. I would be left to watch bowling or poker on ESPN.

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

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:38:42 +0000

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.

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Shamwow! Jimmy Connors, Justin Gimelstob and the Tennis Channel

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:21:40 +0000

Jimmy Connors will join the Tennis Channel in the booth this summer for the U.S. Open. No word if Connors will get free Shamwow products, a leading Tennis Channel advertiser, or have to play doubles with Vince, the smarmy salesman of the miracle towels. Connors, however, will be a big improvement over Justin Gimelstob, a player with a below-mediocre career who has a big smile but limited vocabularly. In a recent interview with Andy Roddick, he referred to Australia’s “repressive” heat, when the word he was looking for was oppressive. In fact, I’d rather hear Vince from Shamwow talk about tennis than Gimelstob.

My favorite Gimelstob memory is his match against Pete Samprasin the second round of the U.S. Open in 2000. While on the way to being routed 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 in the enormous Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gimmelstob whose career ATP single match record was 107 wins and 172 losses, complained to the umpire about noise being made by the blimp hovering overhead, as though the distraction was keeping him from winning the match. For some reason, the blimp didn’t seem to bother Sampras, and neither did Gimelstob’s game.

Of course, there’s much more I could write about Connors and Gimelstob – Gimelstob’s radio rant against Anna Kournikova, and Connor’s arrest at a college basketball game – but those are both well-documented elsewhere.

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