The News Isn’t Smashing for Every Tennis Novice

The lad appears on the screen, bathed in dramatic shadows, standing at Centre Court at Wimbledon, clutching a tennis racket to his chest. He casts a pensive glance into the distance, looking longingly, hopefully, wishfully ... for what?

A cable service that actually carries the Tennis Channel?

That Clipper scout he just bumped into? So sorry having to send him away with the discouraging news that, yes, Ivo Karlovic is a 6-foot 10-inch Croat, he’d probably sign cheap, but, no, he only plays tennis. There goes Elgin Baylor’s draft ... or then again, maybe not.

“When I’m asleep at night,” the youngster says wistfully, “my name is Tim.”

He’s referring to Tim Henman, the English tennis pro who’s never won a major title and was 9-9 in 2003 heading into England’s most famous tennis tournament. Some kids dream the big dream, others realize early in life that the deck is cruelly stacked against them and move on from there.

“And,” the boy adds ominously, “the green garden of my dream is Wimbledon.”

Right. Quite. Of course, he was paid to say that on behalf of ESPN, which has also coveted the green garden for many years and now is stomping merrily all over it, having wrested the tournament’s weekday cable package from TNT.

Let that be a lesson to you, young man. Winning isn’t everything. Money is.

And the top headline on ESPN’s first day of play-by-play live Wimbledon coverage?

“ESPN Takes Out Defending Champion in First Round”

Yes, it was quite a debut for the newcomer. Karlovic didn’t fare too badly, either, eliminating 2002 Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt in four sets Monday, 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4.

Afterward, ESPN brought on two of its commentators, Patrick McEnroe and Brad Gilbert, to talk about it.

McEnroe suggested that Hewitt’s tennis has been waylaid by a variety of off-the-court controversies, among them the lawsuit he filed against the ATP over a fine he received for blowing off a TV interview.

“It was over an ESPN interview,” Gilbert said. “It would have taken [him] five minutes. Now he’s [turned] five minutes into the most ridiculous thing. And the biggest thing is, Lleyton needs to play a lot. And he chose this year to make this stand against the ATP. He’s played very little. He’s not in match form.”

So if Hewitt had simply consented to do the interview with ESPN, he wouldn’t have been fined by the ATP, which means he wouldn’t have had to sue the ATP, which means he wouldn’t have been distracted by the lawsuit, which means he could have played more and practiced more, which means Hewitt surely would have defeated Karlovic, right?

Gilbert also coaches Andy Roddick, no small issue, considering he’s working for ESPN as an analyst and also working for Roddick, whom ESPN would like to see advance far in this tournament because he’s young and American and Pete Sampras isn’t there.

Roddick has been touted as the future of American men’s tennis for so long, Sampras got worn out holding the torch over his head and finally gave up. Andre Agassi continues to hang on -- he’s the oldest men’s No. 1, ever -- largely because Roddick hasn’t delivered on the promise that had Jim Courier writing songs about him when Roddick reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2001.

With Hewitt’s first-round ouster, Agassi is the only player left in the men’s field with a Wimbledon championship to his credit. Sampras won seven before slipping off into unofficial retirement, and now Wimbledon, and ESPN, must find a way to cope.

“His presence is still felt,” Chris Fowler said during a pre-coverage exchange with Mary Carillo.

Considering the lack of ready challengers and potential successors on the horizon, Carillo laughed and quipped, “I still think he’s got a chance.”

It’s a strange time to be buying into tennis. Sampras is gone. Agassi made more headlines in Paris for the mixed doubles that didn’t happen -- Agassi and Steffi Graf, canceled by Graf’s second pregnancy -- than anything that occurred on the court. A breakaway players’ union, IMTA, has rattled the ATP, which has rattled the Grand Slams with a threat of boycott. Rainer Schuettler and Martin Verkerk have been Grand Slam finalists during the last six months.

Not surprisingly, the women have carefully distanced themselves from the men. Throughout the ongoing ATP-Grand Slam dispute, the women’s tour has been conspicuously silent. Instead, the WTA has concerned itself with a marketing campaign built around the slogan, “Get In Touch With Your Feminine Side.”

Not-so-subliminal message: “We have Serena and they don’t.”

It’s hard to get your arms around this splintered sport, let alone give it a hug. The Tennis Channel, which might have been a good idea in 1983, has picked a fine time to step into the fray. For most of the tennis fans living in Southern California, it remains a rumor, with cable operators warily playing wait-and-see on a 24-hour tennis network debuting at least a decade after the boom went bust.

Time Warner Cable will finally bring the Tennis Channel to Los Angeles County on July 1. Elsewhere, the network struggles to add a pocket here, gain a foothold there.

On the FAQ page on the Tennis Channel’s Web site, there is only one question: “How do I get the Tennis Channel?”

Answer: “Call your local cable company or satellite provider and inquire as to the availability. If they are not planning on adding the Tennis Channel to their programming lineup, then let them know how much tennis fans want a Tennis Channel. If that doesn’t work, then you might have to move.”

When you’re talking tennis in 2003, it’s best to do so with a healthy sense of humor.