'25 US Open Day 4 OoP & Discussion

[Jeff from TX]

A nasty one too, where she pulled out the old heavily coded "uneducated and classless" trope on Taylor. I think I just handed in my Penko fandom card.

I'm a little surprised anyone still had one.

[jazzyg]

What a terrific match between Struff and Rune.

I thought Struff had let it slip through his grasp when his break lead in the fourth set went away, but he was ungodly good in the fifth, losing only six points on his serve. Rune withstood three howitzer shots when Struff had a break point at 3-all in the fifth but could not do anything with the monster forehand Struff hit to break for 5-4.

Struff always has been capable of reaching this level, which is why he has been a personal favorite for several years, but at age 35 he had been struggling for more than a year before I got to see him beat Auger Aliassime in person at Wimbledon. He qualified here and is on to the third round with a chance to go farther on what traditionally has been his worst surface.

[Irena2]

We watched Struff and Rune, too. It was compelling!

[FredX]

Sam Querrey does not know when to shut up. Just stop talking for a moment.

[ponchi101]

None of the modern commentators know when to shut up.
Long gone memory.
In the past, HBO had Wimbledon. One thing they did was to switch sometimes to the BBC feed. One day, Nicolas Pereira was playing Lendl, and it went 5, when HBO switched to BBC. The fifth set was compelling, and the commentators said nothing. Late in the set, Lendl hit a monster serve that Pereira smacked for a clean winner with his FH. The BBC commentator, in his thick British accent, said out loud "Tremendous power by Pereira!".
That was his sole comment for a full set. It was glorious.

They don't seem to understand that the show is the match, not them.

[FredX]

A nasty one too, where she pulled out the old heavily coded "uneducated and classless" trope on Taylor. I think I just handed in my Penko fandom card.

She said that during the match?? Did Penko go to school?

I think at the net

I was going to give Penko the benefit of the doubt - Townsend was probably paraphrasing...English is her second language...maybe she was saying she just doesn't know proper etiquette (still ridiculous but still...)

Nope. You can see in one of the clips that she said those exact words.

[skatingfan]

None of the modern commentators know when to shut up.
Long gone memory.
In the past, HBO had Wimbledon. One thing they did was to switch sometimes to the BBC feed. One day, Nicolas Pereira was playing Lendl, and it went 5, when HBO switched to BBC. The fifth set was compelling, and the commentators said nothing. Late in the set, Lendl hit a monster serve that Pereira smacked for a clean winner with his FH. The BBC commentator, in his thick British accent, said out loud "Tremendous power by Pereira!".
That was his sole comment for a full set. It was glorious.

They don't seem to understand that the show is the match, not them.

In the age of piracy commentators are instructed to talk as much as possible to create a verifiable way to determine whose content it is. It also covers the network from copyright claims if there are any images, or music in that appear in the background.

[jazzyg]

I will go contrarian here. I found those same BBC announcers boring and cliche ridden when they ventured to say something.

In general, I like ESPN's commentary. If the announcer is interesting to me, I do not mind the verbiage. If I do not like them, I complain.

[New England Nitemare]

None of the modern commentators know when to shut up.
Long gone memory.
In the past, HBO had Wimbledon. One thing they did was to switch sometimes to the BBC feed. One day, Nicolas Pereira was playing Lendl, and it went 5, when HBO switched to BBC. The fifth set was compelling, and the commentators said nothing. Late in the set, Lendl hit a monster serve that Pereira smacked for a clean winner with his FH. The BBC commentator, in his thick British accent, said out loud "Tremendous power by Pereira!".
That was his sole comment for a full set. It was glorious.

They don't seem to understand that the show is the match, not them.

HBO at Wimbledon was the best coverage back in the day. Dan Maskell of the BBC, was excellent!! A man of few words but very effective the coverage was excellent. HBO had the late Barry MacKay and Billie Jean King doing the coverage. They were very good also. I miss those days!!!