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Growing pains aside, ‘RedZone at the US Open’ is a match made in heaven for tennis junkies
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- Growing pains aside, ‘RedZone at the US Open’ is a match made in heaven for tennis junkies
Credit: ESPN
At the dawn of the streaming revolution in the 2010s, certain sports stood to benefit right away. Tennis was and is one of them.
Before streaming, broadcasters would have at times dozens of matches to choose from and only one screen. Fans were at the mercy of the producer in a truck.
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Now at the U.S. Open, like most other pro events, all 16 courts are streamed.
So it makes sense that ESPN is deploying RedZone at the U.S. Open as its first use outside the NFL. As part of the NFL's acquisition of a 10 percent stake in ESPN, the Worldwide Leader can use the RedZone brand in other sports. And it has been doing so since Sunday on the ESPN app and on ESPN2, ending Friday as the draw thins out.
So how is the experiment faring?
First, know I am a tennis junkie, but it's amazing to me to have this channel. That said, there are obviously differences from football, so it's not necessarily going to have the same impact RedZone has in the NFL, where the duo was a match made in heaven.
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What is the RedZone in tennis? Unlike in football, where the RedZone describes when a team is at the opponent's 20-yard line or closer, there is no such obvious game moment in tennis.
So at the Open, when to flip to a match is not as easy to determine. ESPN has used a variety of circumstances. The most obvious are set and match points, but that clearly can't be the only moments or the channel would be paused for long periods. ESPN's RedZone coverage also jumped in at break points, and had fun on Thursday breaking into players smashing rackets.
"I'll come back to RedZone anytime for the racket breaks," said commentator Coco Vandeweghe, who smashed a few in her playing career.
But there were also look-ins at other points of matches that seemed a little less pivotal. For example, switching to Harriet Dart served at 15-30 down 3-1 didn't seem to be a crucial moment. As a tennis junkie, I didn't mind, but to a casual fan, that's not a compelling, nerve-filled moment. Then there was the Madison Keys comeback match in which she fought off five match points. But with her down 3-5 in the third set, RedZone went to other matches and didn't come back until it was 5-5. That was frustrating.
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Another quibble I have with the effort—and mind you it's only a quibble—but there are too many announcers floating in and out of the RedZone coverage. The NFL version has one voice, Scott Hanson, who is closely associated with the channel. Viewers come to expect his voice when tuning in, no different than fans of a game show expect one host.
With the Open RedZone, it is all hands on deck. One moment it's Vandeweghe, later it might be Andy Roddick. It was tough to tell who was commenting. Though there was no mistaking Luke Jensen, a doubles player from the 1990s, whose commentary at times seemed more suitable for WWE (he and his brother were a gregarious doubles team who described their play as rock and roll tennis because of their high-energy, flamboyant style)
Obviously this is just year one–hopefully there is a year two. And as it evolves, I expect ESPN will choose one or two voices and assign them to do the daily seven hours of coverage (if so, they need to consult Hanson on how he does it without a bathroom break).
I solicited fan opinion from my X account, and most responses were largely positive.
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Several tennis fans noted that the swing around to pivotal moments was, at times, slow.
There were those who wanted to watch a whole match, so they were not big fans.
And others who were loving it, no caveats.
The RedZone ends Friday, so I will definitely be watching if ESPN releases viewership information. I have my fingers crossed that those numbers will convince ESPN to bring it back and deploy it at its two other tennis majors, the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
The post Growing pains aside, 'RedZone at the US Open' is a match made in heaven for tennis junkies appeared first on Awful Announcing .
