I flipped on my TV the other night and stumbled on to a match between Federer and Djokovic. That got my attention immediately because I know Djokovic has been hurt and has not been playing much.
At first, I thought Djokovic Is Back! I eventually figured out that I was watching the finals of the 2015 U.S. Open Tournament. Of course, I did not remember who won so I settled in hoping for Djokovic would win.
It was nip and tuck (whatever that means). I got into it. It was as exciting as if it was a live match...
Ø They were into the 3rd set when I turned it on.
Ø Djokovic had won the first 6-4.
Ø Federer had won the 2nd 7-5.
Ø Djokovic was in deep trouble and it looked as if he was not going to win the 3rd set but he did win it and he did it in spectacular fashion!
Ø If he would win the 4th, my guy would be the 2015 U.S. Open Champion all over again!
Ø Djokovic got ahead 5-2 and was serving for the set and the championship.
Ø If you know anything about tennis, you know those guys usually win their serve.
Ø I felt confident.
Ø Djokovic looked confident.
Ø Federer looked worried.
Ø Djokovic lost his serve!
Ø The game score was 5-3.
Ø Federer won his serve easily (those guys usually win their serve).
Ø The 4th set score was 5-4.
Ø Djokovic could still win the match if he could only hold his serve this time (those guys usually win their serve).
The Tennis Channel went to commercial break. When they came out of the break, the Tennis Channel voice in the background said that, due to time constraints, they were going to go right to the Closing Ceremony!
I jumped out of my chair and said to an empty room, “What! Who won?”!
As the Closing Ceremony got under way, I quickly figured out that Djokovic had won because he looked happier than Federer looked happy but I had questions...
Ø It must have gone more than that 1 game Djokovic was about to serve when they went to the Commercial Break.
Ø If they had Time Constraints it must have been more constraining than 1 single game because that not a lot of time to be constrained about.
Ø My mind raced to the possibilities...
>Djokovic must have lost that game.
>Federer must have won the 4th set.
>They must have gone into the 5th set.
>Heck, the 5th set could have gone into a Tie Breaker.
>No, that’s not right because in Grand Slam Tournaments the 5th and final set does not go into a Tie Breaker.
>They have to play it out.
> They have to win by 2 games.
>Golly gee, that 5th set may have ended 27 games to 25 games.
>That must be it because that’s a lot of time that needed to be constrained about.
>They would not constrain time for one measly game!...Or would they?
I was in a tizzy because I had just missed the greatest ending to a match in the entire history of tennis so I could see the Closing Ceremony in its entirety!
You are thinking that, at this point, I just Googled to find out what the exact final game and set score was, and went to bed because it was very late by now but I did not do that. I kept waiting for one of those many people who were making those many speeches to mention what the exact final game and set score was but they did not. They just kept thanking all the wonderful people who made their wonderful tournament possible (the ball boys, the ball girls, the tournament director, the sponsor of the tournament, the loser for being such a great loser, the loser for being such a great champion up until tonight, the winner for winning, the chair umpire, the florist who put just the right flowers all around the beautiful stadium, the lines people, the hot dog vendors and last but not least etcetera, etcetera, etcetera). I started expecting to see the Late Yul Brynner standing in the background with the dignitaries eating a hot dog he had gotten from that wonderful hot dog vendor. 
I thought the Closing Ceremony was never going to end. It must have taken 20 minutes.
They never did tell me the game score but, near the end of all of this ceremonying (yea, I know that’s not a word), I saw the stadium scoreboard in the background of one of the camera shots and I saw that the 4th set score was 6-4. This means they had skipped the excitement of that one final game to go to the All Important Closing Ceremony!
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I know you are thinking back to the Subject of this Blog Posting and wondering why I said, “And That Has Me Worried”.
I like to watch tennis on TV. My fear is that, if the people who run the Tennis Channel don’t understand why I watch tennis broadcasts, they could take a lot of enjoyment out of my TV future tennis watching.
If they think that I tune in to see the Closing Ceremony and not the Tennis Match itself, am I going to hear these words come out of my TV the next time I pop my popcorn and settle in for The Big Match?...
“We at the Tennis Channel know why you tune in to the Tennis Channel. We know you really love to watch the Closing Ceremony. We always strive to bring to our watchers what our watchers want to watch. From now on we are going to skip the tennis match and take you right to the Closing Ceremony but, first a word from our sponsor, and when we come back, we will take you direct to Howard and the Closing Ceremony Live and In Color!”
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
3 comments:
I think Nascar has an unwritten rule that says the last 10 laps of a race should have enough caution laps to extend the show beyond the TIVO settings on everyone's TV. It is a conspiracy between the networks and the advertisers to force people to either extend their TICO time or watch the show live where they are required to watch every commercial before the checkered flag.
As everyone knows once the winner is chosen, no one watches the victory lane ceremonying unless there is some controversy expected.
Thanks for the new word. I plan to appropriate it for my own use and I may or may not credit The Smartfella.
Rooting for Djokovic over Federer? C’mon, Fella.
My first thought was the year (many years ago) when the “Heidi” movie was put on and cut out the last minute or so of an amazing finish to an important NFL game! I heard that the network’s phone system was immediately overcome with the huge amount of calls!
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