TV Was Off the Mark in Coverage of Wimbledon

It’s 4 p.m. on July 7, and I have just finished watching NBC’s coverage of the men’s semifinals at Wimbledon. What a disgrace. They start by showing us the last game of the fourth set of the Sampras-Ivanisevic match. I guess they decided we would be bored by seeing the first three sets.

If that wasn’t enough, they then tell us that they are going to show us four hours of tennis, thereby letting us guess the winner of the Agassi-Becker match. It’s pretty simple to figure out that if you start a tiebreaker 20 minutes before the end of the four hours, the winner will be Becker because there is not sufficient time to play another set.

NBC should give up their coverage of tennis. They show a complete disdain for their audience.

STU PHILLIPS

Studio City

*

My nomination for best comedy of the year: Tennis commentator John McEnroe’s criticism of a player for displaying bad conduct.

JULIAN F. GOLD

Laguna Niguel

*

Goran Ivanisevic blames constant bad luck for the fact that he never wins big matches, and he’s right. Winners are just lucky, that’s all. It happens in every sport. Baseball, for instance. Bob Gibson was the luckiest player I ever saw. It seemed like he always pitched when the other team didn’t score any runs.

EARL E. ALBERT

Temple City