Thursday, 7:50 a.m. ET: ESPN airs a second feature piece on the upcoming match between Rafael Nadal and Lukas Rosol, which it establishes as its centerpiece of day-four coverage at Wimbledon. The attempt to hype the Nadal-Rosol Wimbledon rematch takes precedence over airing the continuation of the day’s first set of matches, which began on the outer courts at their normally scheduled time, just after 6:30 a.m. Eastern.
Approx. 8:25 a.m. ET: ESPN moves to the first set of Serena Williams’s match against Chanelle Scheepers.
8:37 a.m. ET: ESPN goes back to Nadal-Rosol with the first set even at 4-4.
10:25 a.m. ET: Nadal and Rosol play a compelling match. After Nadal takes a two-sets-to-one lead, ESPN cuts to the fifth set of the extended match between Richard Gasquet and Nick Kyrgios at 7-7, 30-30. Gasquet fends off a break point to hold for 8-7. Coming back from commercial, ESPN stays with this match as Nadal breaks to take control early in the fourth set.
Approx. 10:40 a.m. ET: Kyrgios wins the match, 10-8 in the fifth. ESPN goes back to Nadal-Rosol.
*
Friday, 7:32 a.m. ET: This had already been documented earlier in the Tuesday section of this report, but it’s worth noting again later in the week: ESPN, according to the report of a viewer, talks about upcoming matches instead of showing live tennis,affirming the network’s decision to continue its half-hour “pregame show” (from 6:30 to 7) into the block allotted for live tennis, starting at 7:
8:57 a.m. ET: The third seed on the women’s side, Simona Halep, wins her match on a TV court, 6-4 in the third set, but ESPN stuck with a match between Novak Djokovic and Gilles Simon (the first set) all the way through the concluding sequences of the Halep match. ESPN shows a taped highlight of Halep winning match point at 5-4 in the third.
9:08 a.m. ET: ESPN does cut away to the end of the first set of the match between second-seeded Li Na and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, with Li serving at 5-6.
9:21 a.m. ET: After Zahlavova Strycova wins the first set, 7-6, ESPN goes to the end of the second set in a match between Jerzy Janowicz and Lleyton Hewitt, with Janowicz serving for the set at 5-4.
9:23 a.m. ET: Janowicz serves out the set, 6-4, and ESPN goes back to Djokovic-Simon.
9:37 a.m. ET: After Djokovic wins the second set, ESPN looks in at various matches: Li Na’s match; a match between Lauren Davis and Peng Shuai; a match between Kevin Anderson and Fabio Fognini.
9:58 a.m. ET: With Li in a dogfight late in the second set, ESPN goes back to Djokovic-Simon, with Djokovic up by two sets and on serve at 3-2 in the third.
10:01 a.m. ET: Djokovic injures himself, and ESPN stays with the story on court instead of going to commercial or to another match.
ESPN’s best moment from week one was its willingness to stick with this breaking-news story and not cut away to commercials or other matches. Novak Djokovic appears to be fine, but he also appeared — for a few harrowing minutes — to be at risk of retiring from Wimbledon after this injury scare on Friday during his match against Gilles Simon.
10:18 a.m. ET: ESPN goes to the third-set tiebreaker between Janowicz and Hewitt, at 3-2 for Janowicz.
10:24 a.m. ET: ESPN quickly catches the live match point in Djokovic-Simon, as Djokovic wins.
10:26 a.m. ET: Hewitt takes the third-set tiebreaker, and ESPN shows it.
10:27 a.m. ET: ESPN gets to a second-set tiebreaker in Li-Strycova, at 5-5. The network successfully caught two match points and a set point, all live, within a matter of three minutes.
11:08 a.m. ET: ESPN, having shown the first several games of the match between Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova, moves to the fourth set of the Janowicz-Hewitt match, with Hewitt serving and having set point at 5-4, 40-30.
11:10 a.m. ET: Hewitt wins the set, and ESPN goes back to Venus’s match against Kvitova.
11:28 a.m. ET: Venus wins the first set, and ESPN goes to a first-set tiebreaker between Grigor Dimitrov and Alexandr Dolgopolov.
11:35 a.m. ET: ESPN airs a brief feature on Venus Williams… while her match is continuing early in the second set (1-1).
11:37 a.m. ET: ESPN goes back to coverage of Venus’s match.
11:40 a.m. ET: Janowicz serves for the match at 5-3, and ESPN goes there.
11:44 a.m. ET: After Janowicz wins, ESPN goes back to Venus and Kvitova.
12:03 p.m. ET: Venus holds for 5-4 in the second and goes to sit down at the changeover. ESPN doesn’t go to commercial. It shifts to Dimitrov-Dolgopolov with Dimitrov serving at 5-4.
12:05 p.m. ET: Dimitrov gets to 40-30, but Venus-Kvitova resumes, and ESPN goes there with Kvitova serving at 4-5, 15-all.
1:34 p.m. ET: With Dimitrov and Dolgopolov in a fifth set, ESPN shows the very start of the match between Andy Murray and Roberto Bautista-Agut.
1:44 p.m. ET: Dimitrov quickly pulls away and wins the fifth set, 6-1, while Murray and Bautista-Agut arrive at the first changeover of their match. ESPN shows only match point for Dimitrov at 5-1, 40-0.
3:17 p.m. ET: After Murray wins his match, Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych remain on court in the last singles match of the day. Yet, ESPN goes to the studio desk for commentary instead of live singles tennis. ESPN had shown the first-set tiebreaker of the Cilic-Berdych match a bit earlier.
3:23 p.m. ET: ESPN goes to Cilic-Berdych with Cilic leading 5-3 in the second set.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE WIMBLEDON COVERAGE
Comments are closed.