I saw something on Sunrise (Australian breakfast TV, for those of you not in the know) this morning that really demonstrated how much Australia cares about tennis. On the newsbar down the bottom, the following story flashed up: 'Lleyton Hewitt, Chris Guccione, Carsten Ball and Bryan Klein arrive in Bangkok for Davis Cup.'
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I'm sorry, but I've never heard of an Australian tennis player called 'Bryan' Klein.
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You see, this is indicative of how little awareness the average Aussie has of tennis. I bet hardly anyone even noticed. If they'd spelled a cricket player's name wrong, even a relatively minor one - Phil Jaques, for example - you can bet EVERYONE would notice, and I'm sure there'd be admonishing emails to the channel. But how many people do you think have noticed that Brydan Klein has been misnamed? The show's been on for about two hours now and no one seems to have picked it up...
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Sigh. I guess it is a little bit of a dream, hoping that tennis suddenly becomes huge in Australia. Playing it is big, but because we have no top players right now, there is very little knowledge of what's going on on a larger scale, except when the Aussie Open is on. I have a dream wherein the French Open is on free-to-air television. Unfortunately, this isn't looking likely.
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Today's Results
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Delray Beach International Tennis Championships (Delray Beach)
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Mardy Fish def. Evgeny Korolev, 7-5 6-3
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1 comment:
Well things are even bleaker in Britain! We have pretty abysmal weather for most of the year. Indoor courts are extortionate, unlike France and Holland (so I hear). Plus the outdoor tarmac courts are hardly fantastically maintained, with cracks, moss growing and none too cheap either!!!
As for free RG coverage, if mobile high speed internet is cheap like it is in Britain, there's always live online streaming...!
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