via Reuters

The Tennis Channel’s coverage of the Madrid Open last month became a target of backlash from fans. The American sports-oriented television network didn’t feature the high-profile clash between Coco Gauff and Madison Keys resulting in criticism. Now once again, the platform has come under fire for snubbing other blockbuster matches featuring the likes of Danielle Collins, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sakkari, and others during the Italian Open.

In the US, fans can access live streaming of the Italian Open matches on the Tennis Channel. As the stage was set up for a clash between Maria Sakkari and Victoria Azarenka, fans online expected to see the high-profile showdown between two top seeds in Rome. Earlier, 13th seed, Danielle Collins, clinched a brilliant round-of-16 victory against Irina-Camelia Begu. However, Tennis Channel was showing replays from the earlier matches instead of the live coverage of the matches featuring the WTA superstars.

Interestingly, WTA’s deal with the Tennis Channel came about after fans were frustrated with BeIN Sports’ coverage. The inconsistent and inattentive coverage of women’s tennis by BeIN, led to WTA cutting the United States portion of its worldwide rights deal with the network short and returning to Tennis Channel in 2018. BeIN was often accused of favoring other sports over women’s tennis. But the recent coverage issues with the Tennis Channel point to a similar problem.

Renowned tennis journalist José Morgado recently shared glimpses of two blockbuster encounters at the Italian Open, including the round of 16 between Maria Sakkari and Victoria Azarenka. He tweeted, “Almost 11pm. Two very good WTA R16 matches underway.” This could have been done to highlight the lack of coverage for these matches. As a result, fans online were quick to lash out at the Tennis Channel for their snub of these matches.

“WTA needs to do better,” Fans react to Tennis Channel’s snub of a high-profile match at the Italian Open

The five-year deal between the Tennis Channel and WTA was signed in 2018. It includes television and digital streaming components and was aimed at providing ample coverage to the women’s tennis. However, tennis as a sport doesn’t have control over T2’s programming decisions.

But this has meant that the fans growing frustrated with how things have been going for a while. The frustration likely stems from the desire to see live tennis, not replays, especially if there are interesting matches happening.

Last month’s Madrid Open also saw a similar theme. As Coco Gauff took on Madison Keys in an all-American clash in the last 16, the fans were left disappointed after the network failed to provide proper coverage of the match. Not only this, during the first round match between Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani, the Tennis Channel’s broadcast switched to show a men’s encounter instead, again drawing the ire of the viewers.

Now that the Italian Open seems to be following the same trend, another fan was ‘annoyed’ as the network didn’t stream the high-profile game between two top seeds, Sakkari and Azarenka.

In the past, YouTube TV added the Tennis Channel and T2 to show matches. But even then the coverage was not up to the mark, as a portion of the screen featured the panel from the off-site studio. Another criticism has been the channel showing interviews and past matches instead of the ongoing WTA matches.

Coming to the Italian open, aside from the replays of the earlier games, Tennis Channel was also showing an interview, and it infuriated another fan.

Danielle Collins is an American tennis star and ranked number 4 in the world. So her match not being shown live does raise a few concerns. There have been other high profile names like Victoria Azarenka who have been snubbed by the Tennis network during the Italian Open.

A fan, who was eager to see Collins’ round of 16 against her unseeded opponent, was also upset as the Tennis Channel didn’t stream the match.

After the debacle of beIN Sports in US, the Tennis Channel was seen as a fresh start and a chance to highlight the best of WTA. WTA’s chief executive Steve Simon, had expressed hope to bridge the gap in the coverage of men’s and women’s tennis but that seems to have not transpired so far.

In the round of 16 fixtures, the 9th seed, Jeļena Ostapenko, pulled off a pheromonal comeback as she prevailed in a three-set match against Rebecca Šramková. However, the Latvian tennis player’s thrilling showdown was also not part of the Tennis Channel’s coverage of the Italian Open.

It prompted another fan to vent her disappointment on Twitter as they shed light on the snubbing of WTA matches and how the game has been let down.

What do you think of Tennis Channel’s WTA coverage? Let us know in the comments section.