(Davis Cup) Tennis on TV Matters...
The Davis Cup Finals is in the United States next weekend featuring the talented and charismatic American team, i.e. Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan brothers. The Americans face their old Cold War rivals, the Russians, in Portland, Oregon. However, this much-anticipated Davis Cup tie will struggle to find a real following among general sports fans, let alone tennis fans. The Davis Cup Finals will be televised live in the
U.S. on Versus cable channel and then replayed at night on Tennis Channel. Unfortunately, neither of these cable channels is as widely available as ESPN, USA or obviously the major networks, i.e. NBC, CBS, ABC. ESPN, which televises the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and ATP Masters Series tournaments used to cover the Davis Cup. Therefore, tennis fans will need to work pretty hard to be able to watch the Davis Cup finals and it will be unlikely that the general public will follow the tie. Tennis is really stuck in a catch-22 situation. Tennis continues to struggle to gain mainstream fan attention in the United States, but you need TV coverage on major networks in order to achieve that recognition.
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