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7 Ways to Catch Wimbledon

Posted by inside_tennis Jun 24, 2008

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For those not fortunate enough to get the Tennis Channel, Wimbledon is the one time throughout the year that American audiences are able to gorge on great tennis coverage. Rarely do we get live early rounds, outer-court coverage and quality tennis coverage the game and the fans deserve.

From daily 10-hour streams on ESPN and ESPN2 to early rounds and quarterfinals on NBC, get ready to feast on the event from start to finish. Additionally, there are a number of non-traditional new medias that are helping to fill in the gaps. Careful, though, come July 6 this bountiful buffet will quickly return to the tennis famine we have sadly grown accustom to...


ESPN/NBC
Here's the 2008 Wimbledon TV Schedule including live, taped and video on demand schedules. Get ready to clear your calendars.


Radio Wimbledon
The official radio station of Wimbledon since 1992, Radio Wimbledon provides extensive commentaries for matches using a team of reporters around the grounds. You have to be within a 5-mile radius to catch the broadcast on your radio, but thanks to the Internet, you can catch the stream from your home office.

Wimbledon Live
Wimbledon LIVE is the official online video service for Wimbledon 2008. You can subscribe to get live and on demand video from up to eight courts including Centre Court and No.1 Court, previews, highlights, interviews and classic archive footage.

Slam Tracker
This is the IBM-driven Wimbledon score tracker. Flashy and addictive, makes a great compliment to Radio Wimbledon. Select "Live Scores" from drop-down menu and allow pop-up.

Live scores
Similar to Slam Tracker, more like Web 1.0.

ATP Videos
ATP's official site has re-launched in conjunction with their Feel the Power ad campaign. This video page offers some nice highlights and player interviews.

Get the Tennis Channel
Even though the Tennis Channel has to bow to the big boys during Wimbledon, it still offers some great highlights and taped matches from the bigger matches throughout the day. Otherwise, it offers a tennis fix 24 hours a day.

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According to a press release on ATPTennis.com, fifteen-year-old Texan Ryan Harrison became the third youngest player (since 1990) to notch an ATP match win when he defeated Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 6-3 on Monday at the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas.

Harrison is one of four men's singles who gained entry to the main draws via the qualifying round.

Next up, the teen could face James Blake or Kei Nishikori, who are scheduled to play later today.

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The ATP is sponsoring a neat fantasy game for pro tennis the season. It's the ATP Bracket Challenge Circuit with the grand prize of a VIP trip for two to any ATP tournament worldwide.

Here's how it works: For each of eight games, select the best bracket and win cool stuff. 1st place is $1,000 worth of Penn Head products; 2nd place is $500 of Penn Head stuff; 3rd place is $250 worth of gear. And for each event, if you pick a perfect bracket win a VIP trip for two to any ATP tourney. Not bad, huh?

So they're giving away these prizes for each event, plus the best bracket at the end of the season wins the VIP vacation.

Problem is, with the ATP field all goosey this season (Federer in a slump; Nadal dropping the ball; Mardy Fish, Tsonga and Davydenko stepping up) it's a tough field to predict.

Visit the ATP site to learn more: http://www.atptennis.com/5/en/fantasy/bracket.asp

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“If anyone's been listening to my commentary the past year then they know I'm in favor of using replay. I think it will make tennis more interesting.” -John McEnroe

I dropped out of tennis for a while. My wife and I had our first child; I started focusing on my career; moved to a new city. When I returned to the sport I quickly realized it had jumped into the 21st Century. I'm referring to this new technology called Hawk-Eye or Player Challenge. I was watching the '07 Rogers Cup when I first witnessed this impressive device for line calling and instant replay.

It does make tennis more interesting. But how is it changing the game?

According to the hawk-eye rules: Each player receives three challenges per set. When the player challenges a point and loses, the player loses that point and one challenge. If the player wins a challenge, he wins the point and the number of challenges remains as it was. If a player has no challenges remaining and they go on a tie break, he gets one challenge.

It's a rather fair system; a player can stop play and challenge a call. And if he is wrong he loses that point anyway. What it does do is break up the pacing of the game -- a bonus for Nadal who prefers this tactic to shake his opponents. And if the replay is in the challenger's favor, then its a huge psychological boost. In this way Hawk-Eye has become another tool in a player's gear bag; another aspect of player strategy adding to the psychological aspect of the game.

Personally, I think it's some of the most interesting ruling technology to come out of professional sports. But how accurate is it?

Using multiple high-frame-rate cameras, Hawk-Eye finds the exact 3D position of the ball at a series of time intervals leading into a bounce. From these 3D positions, a trajectory of the ball is calculated. Hawk-Eye uses this trajectory to project where the ball will first make contact with the ground and then how much the ball will compress and skid once it has contacted the ground. From this, the “bounce mark” is determined up to 2-3mm.

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2007 Wimbeldon: In the third game of the fourth set, with Roger Federer a break down and serving at 30-30, he did not play at a ball near the baseline. He thought that it was out, the line judge thought it was out, the umpire thought it was out and a BBC freeze frame seemed to confirm this, too.

However, after a challenge from Rafael Nadal, Hawk-Eye showed the shot in. Federer lost his temper, declaring that the machine was “killing him” and demanded that it be turned off.

One of the biggest problems with this situation was the skidding of the ball following first contact, and the use of television-quality replay affecting the decision of the audience.

Television replays look deceptive because the cameras are at the wrong angle looking down at the ball. The ball also has a lot of motion blur and the cameras do not work at a sufficiently high frame rate to capture the crucial part of when the ball first touches the ground.

What television cameras see as the ball's contact area is actually up to 10cm further than first contact when accounting for ball skid. These frame rates are more accurate when viewing at the 100 fps of Hawk-Eye cameras (as opposed to 150 fps of tv cameras).

If Hawk-Eye technology was around in the 70s would we have still been witness to the fabulous tirades of McEnroe?

Probably.

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