Ah …. Finally …. Wimbledon in HD!

I’m happy to report that NBC lived up to its promise to provide high def coverage of Wimbledon for the first time this weekend. And, surprisingly, they’ll be broadcasting all of the second week at Wimbledon in HD too.

With the U.S. Feb 17, 2009 digital cut over deadline looming, my bet is that the 2009 Australian Open will be carried in HD too, making all four grand slams available in HD in North America for the first time.

HD Scoring – Still Needs Work

Owing to the fact that NBC uses the same feed for both their HD and SD analogue broadcasts, as you can see below (click images for larger view) their on screen scoring grid and unwanted NBC bug show up more in the center of the screen than they would if the broadcast was optimized for HD. I’m hoping that after next February’s digital cut over, networks will start moving scoring grids to the sides of the screen. Or, they could use the top of the screen scoring format that ESPN 2 is using for the weekday Wimbledon broadcasts.

But for now, I’m just happy to see Wimbledon in HD for the first time in my life.

Be Careful What You Wish For

[Update - Everything below was written on July 6, 2008]

After week one, as you can see above, I was delighted to learn that NBC was going to provide HD coverage for the entire second week. They did indeed.

While HD is certainly nice, the resulting embargoed matches and U.S.-centric, stilted coverage was sub-par and left ESPN2′s (TSN in Canada) overflow coverage a mess.

On Monday, for the round of 16, NBC didn’t bother showing the Federer match and chose an all-Williams sisters Monday along with other miscellaneous other coverage. Nor did they provide any coverage of my new found French Open favourite – Dinara Safina (she lost to Shahar Peer in the round of 16 ). Safina was a French Open 2008 finalist. Yet, NBC did tell the viewers the result of the Federer match which ultimately ruined the ESPN2 later rebroadcast of that match.

The next day NBC saw to it that it was yet another all-Williams ladies-day at Wimbledon, covering the Williams quarter final matches at the expense of other matches.

NBC didn’t provide any second week coverage of my most recent ladies’ favourites, Alla Kudryavtseva and Zheng Jie – despite their historic first week matches knocking out the two top seeds,  Sharapova and Ivanovic respectively.

I could go on and on. You get the picture. Suffice it to say, by the time of the all-William’s ladies final, I had had more than enough of the Williams sisters for one week!

Official Wimbledon Site | Wimbledon Live | Men’s Draw | Ladies’ Draw |  

With the exception of Nalbandian (7), all the major seeds advanced to the second round including: Federer (1), Djokovic (3), Hewitt (20), Safin, Gonzalez (15), Baghdatis (10), Ivanovic (1), Kuznetsova (4),  S. Williams (6) and Mauresmo (20).

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we’ll see the first round matches of: Nadal (2), Davydenko (4), Roddick (6), Blake (9), Murray (12), Fish, Tipsarevic, Jankovic (2),  Sharapova (3), Dementieva (5), V. Williams (7), Safina (9) and, my favourite, Davenport (25).

The Canadians

Canadian Frank Dancevic made it through to the second round. Stephanie Dubois lost in the first. Aleksandra Wozniak plays her first match tomorrow.

Can Roger Win It?

Ever since Nadal wiped the floor with Federer in the French, the press has been a-buzz with talk about whether Roger can win Wimbledon again.  I say, of course he can. He’s won 5 straight Wimbledons. Why not another? Every great player goes through lean times. He had no problem knocking out his buddy Hrbaty in straight sets today. My money is still on Federer to take a 6th straight victory.

Challenge Rule Change

This year players are allowed three challenges per set, plus 1 in a tie-break. Last year they were only allowed two challenges.

New Retractable Roof – Almost

The retractable roof is still a work in progress. It is taking Wimbledon three full years to add this much needed retractable roof. As you can see in the picture above, the trusses are in. But the roof won’t be added to the movable trusses until next year. Thankfully the weather forecast  for the next few days is much more favourable than last year’s soaker with 22 frustrating rain delays in 13 days of play.

ESPN 2 Weekday Coverage

Thank goodness The Sport’s Network is providing ESPN 2 coverage with its 9 season’s commentators:  Chris Fowler, Brad Gilbert, Mary Joe Fernandez, Dick Enberg, Mary Carillo, Cliff Drysdale, Patrick McEnroe, Luke Jensen and good old Bud Collins. What a difference  from the abysmal Super Signal coverage Rogers provides for the French Open.

New ESPN 2on-screen Scoring

ESPN2 has a new on-screen scoring system (circled in red in the left picture – click on it for a larger view). The score is now shown across the top of the screen. It takes a bit of getting used-to, but it is an improvement over the old score grid(shown in the right picture) that covered up part of the play. Adding to the frustration of the old grid, TSN’s scrolling sport-highlight banner would often cover up the bottom of the old grid for minutes at a time. This is a welcome change.

New Electronic Scoreboards

Wimbledon is really coming into the modern era. They now have electronic scoreboards for the first time.

Who knows, they might even put in lights for night matches one day!

NBC HD Coverage?

NBC’s promo last weekend was promising HD weekend coverage of Wimbledon. If they do, it will be the first time. In the past NBC carried a 4 x 3 SD digital signal on their HD channel. But, since they provided the 2008 French Open in true HD for the first time, I’m very hopeful I’ll get to see Wimbledon in HD for the first time. With HD coverage of the Aussie Open, we’d mark a new era of year-round North American weekend coverage of all four slams in HD. I’ll drink to that!

Safina played well, but not well enough. Not unlike her brother, her emotions too often got in the way. In her round of 16 and quarterfinal matches against Dementieva and Kuznetsova, she had come back from being a set and match-point down to prevail. Ivanovic was too good for this to work a third time.

Ivanovic’s shots were strong and accurate. She played one of her best-ever matches, convincingly solid and steady throughout. She didn’t show any of the nervousness that kept her from winning the final against Sharapova at the 2008 Aussie Open and the final against Henin at the 2007 French Open. She’s come a long way from learning tennis in a war-torn Belgrade swimming pool.

This makes the seventh straight women’s French Open final that was won in straight sets. The last three-set women’s final was at the 2001 French Open – where Jennifer Capriati defeated Kim Clijsters.

Gone Too Soon

Justine Henin sat in the audience and watched the final. She surprised everyone by announcing her early retirement just two weeks before the start of the 2008 French Open.

Henin won 4 of the last 5 French Opens. Five years ago both she and fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters were playing in this final. Now they are both retired. As Tim Robinson aptly asked, can you imagine seeing Nadal just sitting there and watching next year?

Nonetheless, it was touching to see her congratulating the winners and handing out the trophies – particularly since Safina beat Henin in her final professional match just a few weeks ago in Berlin.

Fitness Making the Difference

One of my complaints about the women’s game is that too few women’s players take fitness and conditioning as serious as the men’s field. As you can see from the photos below, this was not the case for either of Ivanovic or Safina today. No doubt their fitness played a significant part in their getting so far.

These pictures aptly demonstrate that women can be fit and feminine at the same time. I hope more of the women follow this lead. The women’s game needs to be elevated with better fitness, conditioning and stamina in order to be as compelling to watch as the men’s game. Ivanovic and Safina have proven it can be done.

As Bjorn Borg looked on (see pic below), Nadal decisively defeated Novak Djokovic in the first men’s semi final of the 2008 French Open. Nadal is now within one match of tying  Borg’s four-straight French Open win record.

I started watching, trying very hard not to root for either player. I wanted to revel in the sheer brilliance of their play alone. But I wasn’t able to do that for long.  While Djokovic put up an admirable fight, the match was clearly Nadal’s from the beginning.

Hard as it is to believe, Nadal seems to be playing even better than he had in prior years. This is the first time I recall seeing the usually over-confident Djokovic appear dispirited. Nonetheless, he managed to provide a terrific match – giving Nadal a run for his money in the third. Again, a brilliant match.

Once again, NBC picked up Friday coverage of the Nadal-Djokovic semi-final in HD. This time overlapping the TSN Super Signal coverage. I savoured the HD, this being only the third grand slam provided in HD in North America. It is still such a novelty. Weekend coverage of both the 2006 and 2007 US Opens tournaments were provided in HD.

I was stuck with TSN’s analogue Super Signal coverage for the second semi-final between Roger Federer and Frenchman Gael Monfils. But the lower broadcast fidelity of the second semi did not foreshadow  the quality of the second men’s semi. Frenchman Gael Monfils had the French crowd decidedly riled up as he managed to break Federer twice, take a set and hold off two match points. But the result was never much in doubt. I assumed Federer would prevail and he did – in fine form.

Given the quality of Nadal’s semi-final play, I will be surprised if Federer manages to win the Sunday final. My bet is on Nadal once again. Either way, I hope it goes 5 sets.

Two of my favourites, Davenport (not playing for ‘personal reasons’) and Roddick (out for a rotator cuff injury) are not participating. Three time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, one of my all-time favourites, formally retired from professional tennis this week after an early round loss (I’ll miss Guga). Clijsters’, Henin’s, & Agassi’s retirements have left big holes in the sport. Hingis was forced out of professional tennis due to a cocaine scandal. Baghdatis, Fish, Mauresmo, Safin, Blake, and V. Williams’ were all early round losers. Significant rain delays resulted in the poor already Super Signal coverage (see below) being even worse than usual.

On a happier note, it was a pleasure to see Hewitt go down to Ferrer and Serena Williams go down (once again with little grace or class) to Srebotnik. I was a Hewitt fan in his earlier years. But his success made him too cocky and arrogant for my tastes. Serena’s always been in my bad books with rarely a kind word for anyone.

Perhaps I was spoiled with the terrific first week of tennis at the 2008 Aussie Open. The early round Roddick-Kohlschreiber and Federer-Tipsarevic matches there were probably some of the best matches I have seen in years.

Canadians at the French Open

Seeing any Canadian make it into any grand-slam tennis event is a rarity! This year there were three: 112th ranked Frank Dancevic (whose had some minor successes recently), Stephanie Dubois and Aleksandra Wozniak. Dancevic and Dubois were predictably defeated in the first round by qualifiers. Wozniak was defeated in the third round.

Rogers – TSN – Super Signal Broadcasting

I’m generally delighted with how much coverage Canada’s The Sport’s Network (TSN) gives to all four tennis grand slams on Rogers Cable. But TSN’s weekday coverage of the French Open is always worse than the other three. For the second year in a row they opted to take the ridiculously poor Super Signal feed (its no doubt cheaper) over the far superior USA Network or ESPN 2 weekday feeds that TSN carries for the other three slams. Super Signal can’t seem to find commentators that are either knowledgeable about tennis or that can speak proper English? I’m not sure if it’s an improvement over last year where they provided no commentators – at all – for most matches.

USA and ESPN 2 must have the exclusive rights to carry weekday matches with U.S. players because Super Signal did not cover a single match with U.S. players this week. They did provide a few minutes of Blake’s early round loss to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia – but only when they had exhausted their other rain-delay backup programming.

I so look forward to the day when we are not reliant on network coverage – when we can use our TiVos, Xbox’s, PS3s or Apple TVs to order up the matches we want to see over the Internet. 

NBC’s First-Ever French Open HD Coverage

Prior to this last weekend, the only slam available in HD was the U.S. Open. I was delighted to see NBC provide weekend HD coverage of the French Open for the first time (click the pictures in this post). My TiVo Series 3 provided me with beautiful HD coverage of the Federer, Nadal and Djokovic matches. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll get first time HD coverage of Wimbledon in a few weeks.

Looking Forward to Week 2

With all my favourite women either retired, not playing or eliminated, I have almost no interest on the woman’s side. Ana Ivanovic is the only women’s player that holds any interest for me. She, along with Jankovic, has been too inconsistent to gain my admiration – despite being a cutie. With most of the competition gone (except Sharapova and the Russians) they stand a good chance of winning.

[June 2 Update: Week 2 just got more exciting on the women's side with Marat Safin's younger sister, Safina, taking out Sharipova! I didn' expect that. Safina recently won her first title in Berlin defeating the now retired Henin.]

If Robby Ginepri (the only American left) makes it past the round of 16, it will be a minor miracle. [June 2 Update: Ginepri was routed by Gonzalez.]

A final with any two of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal would be terrific. (Djokovic would meet Nadal in the semis if they both make it that far). Witnessing Nadal tie Borg’s record of four straight French Open titles or watching Federer win the only slam that alludes him would be gratifying.

Let’s hope Roland Garros come alive in the second week.