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Remind me never to make fun of the NCAA Tournament committee again.
Did you notice that only one of the top eight seeds at the Tennis Channel Open made it past his second-round match?
Of course you didn't. But take my word for it.
As the TCO stumbles into the semifinals on Saturday, only Guillermo Canas of Argentina, the No. 4 seed, is still bashing the fuzzy ball around the hard court. He'll play American Sam Querrey at 5:30 p.m. at the Darling Tennis Center. In the early semi, it'll be Kevin Anderson of South Africa vs. Robby Ginepri, another Yank, at 11 a.m.
Canas, Querrey, Anderson, and Ginepri. Hmmm.
No Duke or North Carolina among that group. More like a Gonzaga and three George Masons.
And now they tell me they've also canceled the air hockey tournament.
So, Ron, what is your point? It seems to be a glib sideswipe at the Tennis Channel Open, another "everything we try in Vegas is done poorly" sort of thing. Yes, the Tennis Channel Open is far from perfect, and yes, we'd all love to see the caliber of players upgraded to Indian Wells levels. But the tournament is young. And never forget it was inherited from Scottsdale, a city that supports tennis about as much as Las Vegas and also struggled with keeping it a success.
Don't know about the glib part but I confess to the sideswipe. The talent of these young players aside, they are still relative unknowns (to the average sports fan, at least) and Las Vegas traditionally doesn't get excited about watching relative unknowns do much of anything.
Without an influx of marquee talent, I fear the long-range viability of the tournament is negligible at best.
rk