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Letters: Open letter to TV tennis producers

I am a former USPTA Pro who now just plays for fun. When I started playing in the 1960s, tennis was rarely on television. Now, all the big tourneys are televised, and there’s even a whole channel devoted to tennis, if you can’t get enough. This is great for the avid tennis fan. But there are two simple things TV tennis producers could do to make all this viewing more enjoyable.

First, show all the set scores as the match progresses. This is very important to a tennis player. Just showing 2-1 in sets is incomplete and frustrating. The precise score of each set tells how close the match is going and who has the momentum.

Second, cut down on all the zooming-in! To a tennis player, it is important to see the relationship of the ball to both players and their relative positions on the court. If you want to focus on one player making the swing sometimes, that’s helpful. But it does no good to zoom in on the ball as a dropshot hits the court surface. Unless I can see how far away the opponent is from that ball, it does nothing. The perspective of the ball to the player is what is important.

Bob Stewert

From the May 2009 issue
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