American tennis player Nicole Melichar-Martinez was left fuming after broadcasters failed to air the 2023 Canadian Open WTA doubles final on Sunday.
Doubles specialist Melichar-Martinez participated in the women’s doubles event at the recently concluded rain-hit WTA 1000 Canadian Open in Montreal. She and her longtime partner Ellen Perez bowed out against Zhaoxuan Yang and Latisha Chan in the quarterfinals.
Following their win over the American-Australian duo, Yang and Chan were made to wait until Sunday to contest their semifinal match against the Japanese pair of Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara.
The Japanese duo came out on top in the semifinals, and later on the same day, they went all the way to win their second WTA 1000 title together at the Canadian Open. In a nail-biting final against Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs, Aoyama and Shibahara won 6-4, 4-6, 13-11.
However, tennis enthusiasts were unable to watch the action as neither of the matches was streamed or televised on any of the broadcasting channels such as Tennis Channel Plus, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and Star. Additionally, much to the fans’ dismay, the delayed doubles and singles semifinals were also contested simultaneously on Sunday after numerous rain delays.
Several tennis fans called out the broadcasters for the fiasco. Doubles World No. 11 Nicole Melichar-Martinez took note of the snub and blasted the Tennis Channel for the controversial decision of not streaming the Canadian Open WTA doubles final. She also made a sarcastic remark about the failure of promoting tennis, and deemed the whole situation “unacceptable.”
“@TennisChannel Plus not streaming the WTA 1000 doubles final in Montreal? Are you kidding me? That’s f*cking bullshit. How is this allowed???? Trying to grow our sport, doing a great job,” the doubles World No. 11 fumed.
“Rescheduling is fine… they have 0 excuse for not keeping a camera on the other court and pressing record. Unacceptable… and it’s not the first final that wasn’t streamed this year!” she added.
It is worth noting that broadcasters in the United States have come under fire for their inadequate coverage of tennis numerous times this season.
“It’s been a little unprofessional” – Elena Rybakina calls out WTA for poor organization of Canadian Open 2023
Apart from the broadcasting issues, several tennis players were noticeably disgruntled about the scheduling debacle in Montreal.
World No. 4 Elena Rybakina, who made it as far as the semifinals, did not hold back in expressing her dissatisfaction after exiting the event on Sunday.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion criticized the WTA for their unprofessionalism regarding the issues faced by players. Rybakina pointed at her quarterfinal match against Daria Kasatkina that concluded at 3 am in the morning.
“It’s the first time when the match went that long and we finished also so late. It’s the first time and hopefully the last time because I think it’s been a little bit unprofessional from the, I cannot say really the tournament because I think that the most important is the WTA here, and the leadership is a little bit weak for now,” she said in her post-match press conference.
Rybakina urged for a positive change in scheduling, having faced similar issues in previous tournaments as well.
“Hopefully, something is going to change because this year, it was many situations which I cannot really understand,” she added.
