I DID SOMETHING yesterday that I have not done in literally 10 years: I watched a complete tennis match. And you know what, I have forgotten how much fun tennis can be on television.
Yesterday morning I watched the men's final of the Australian Open. I watched partly because an un-ranked 22-year old Frenchman by the name of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga was in the final, and partly because I was deathly ill and was lying on the couch with nothing else to do. But the point is that the match was great fun to watch.
Tennis has rapidly declined in popularity in the United States in the past 10-15 years, especially on the men's side. But it didn't used to be that way. In the late 70s and early-to-mid 80s Grand Slam events would regularly score high television ratings. 'Breakfast at Wimbledon' was as much a part of the sports culture as the World Series or the Superbowl (OK, I might have stretched that a bit!).
But no more. Tennis barely registers on the ratings radar. Poker and the X-Games routinely get more viewers than tennis. To bad because it's really good viewing sport.
5 comments :
Could not agree more. It's great on TV, but for Americans to get involved we need PERSONALITIES. As good as Federer and Sampras are/were, they are boring!!
hey I just randomly came across your blog -- I'm also an American living in Antibes!
Fresh out of college, I've come to realize that most of my friends back home who were super involved in tennis matches were international students! Go figure...
But ever since living with them, I've been paying a lot more attention to the sport :)
Feel better soon
Dude I used to love Tennis. How many kids do you know received a subscription to Tennis magazine from the ages of 9 to 11. Well now you know one. I wanted to watch that match but a) it was on at 2AM and b) I don't have ESPN. Its nice to see someone not named Federer in a Grand Slam final.
Nathan! Awesome to hear from you. Im going to email you somtime. Who is the lady friend?
Hopefully you got inspired to take up a tennis racaquet as well as a soccer ball now that you don't have a hockey stick. Your dad has really gotten very good at tennis in less than 6 months. You won't believe how well he plays==best in the family now!
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