Emma Raducanu’s Nail-Biting Nottingham Tie Fails to Make It to American TVs as Fans Vent Out Anger on Renowned Broadcaster
The Tennis Channel’s coverage of a tennis event has yet again become a target of backlash from the fans! Emma Raducanu took on Katie Boulter in the ‘Battle of the Brits‘ at the SF of the 2024 Nottingham Open. Both the players had a long wait to get onto the court after the rain caused havoc with the schedule. The match started at 6:30 pm local time. However, it was soon suspended after just one set due to poor light conditions.
Emma Raducanu won the first set in a marathon tie-break 7-6(13) and now both players will yet again in action on Sunday. However, running highlights of a previous match instead of telecasting this mega battle has yet again put the Tennis Channel in trouble! Fans have come out in numbers to showcase their disappointment on this issue on social media. Interestingly, Tennis Channel’s introduction to the frame of women’s tennis arose from a similar situation in 2018.
Fans were disappointed with the coverage of beIN Sports during that time. Inconsistent and inattentive coverage of the Qatari multinational network of sports channels led a fury among the fans. They were often accused of favoring other sports over telecasting women’s tennis. However with the introduction of Tennis Channel, fans were quite hopeful for a change, but this still remains a persistent issue in women’s tennis.
What a marathon of a first set @EmmaRaducanu takes the first set 7-6(13) over Boulter! #RothesayOpen pic.twitter.com/ifdTwbi9ID
— wta (@WTA) June 15, 2024
Tennis fans don’t want to see highlights of previous matches during a live match and that’s quite obvious. But at the same time, tennis as a sport doesn’t have control over T2’s programming decisions. Since the match has been shifted to Sunday, it’ll be interesting to see how well Tennis Channel can capitalize on this second opportunity to please its fans.
Katie Boulter is currently the British number one tennis star in women’s singles ranking. While Emma Raducanu is a former US Open champion. Although Boulter has a lead of 1-0 over Raducanu in the H2H and is a defending champion here. But Emma Raducanu seems to be slowly and steadily coming back to her form. So, there’s a lot at stake for both the players in this match before the mega event in London! This is perhaps what makes this contest more interesting for the fans and hence, they looked a bit disappointed after missing it yesterday.
Tennis fans heavily criticize Tennis Channel for not telecasting Emma Raducanu’s match against Katie Boulter at the Nottingham Open
Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter are two of the most popular figures in British tennis at the moment. Boulter has already won a title this year and currently has a win-loss record of 15-9 this season. On the other hand, Emma Raducanu has a win-loss record of 11-7 but she looked quite steady in the last few weeks. Missing out on this action led the fans to write, “Really @TennisChannel what is the point of T2? You’ve got two popular British women in the semifinal of a British tournament and you’re not covering it, and on T2 there’s some program about Aboriginals. You can’t save those programs for when there’s no live tennis on?” in social media.
Instead of running the “All-British Clash” they were accused of running the highlights of the SF at the Stuttgart Open featuring an “All-Italian Faceoff” between Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Musetti. A fan expressed his disappointment on X by writing, “@TennisChannel why the hell are you airing a rerun of the Berretini win while Raducanu and Boulter are playing live?”
Tennis Channel Plus charges $109.99 for an annual subscription. However, multiple times in the past they have been accused of sub-par coverage. During the 2023 French Open, fans were so infuriated with them that some of them directly accused “The existence of Tennis Channel” is like a “Plot to kill tennis in the US.” Aligning with the same disappointment a fan wrote, “and yet only available on TC Plus — sigh. (Yes, I have it, but that’s not the point.) First, they showed old WTA interviews with players during the clay season. Then a replay of this morning’s Stuttgart men’s SF.”
12-12 in this Boulter-Raducanu first set tiebreak in Nottingham.
Really enjoying the quarter-hour church bells as a literary device at this tournament, incidentally.
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 15, 2024
They have become one of the leading broadcasters of tennis in the US, yet fans accuse “They hardly ever stay with one match from start to finish.” Their commentators have also, at times been bashed by tennis fans for poor commentary! Another one wrote, “I just don’t understand why it’s not being televised on @TennisChannel. Instead, they’re showing a match from earlier in the day.”
Even during the Madrid Open this year, they received a lot of criticism for not telecasting some high-profile clashes. Tennis fans strongly believe they need to do better in this regard. “How about actually showing the match, instead of old interviews on clay? Yes, it’s on TC+. But it’d be nice to show it on your, y’know, main channel – Emma vs. Katie, two of the biggest stars in British tennis,” said the other fan. Share your thoughts on this burning issue in the tennis world surrounding the coverage of the Tennis Channel.
