Sportsnet serves up embarrassing double fault on inept coverage of National Bank Open

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Remember when tennis was treated as a big thing in Canada, especially on television?

Remember when the annual pro tournament here was known as the Rogers Cup and Rogers Sportsnet treated it like it was something special with full-on, extensive coverage?

Well those days appear long gone, at least for early round coverage of the latest rendition of the National Bank Open, being played this week and next in Montreal in Toronto. In what would seem to be a puzzling move to cut costs by Sportsnet – especially given owner Rogers long history with the event – viewers are being short-changed to the point of being embarrassing.

For the first week of action, anyway, Sportsnet is pulling in the ATP world feed to air on its platforms, a bare-bones production that is in stark contrast to what the network showed in the past and pays minimal attention to the stories that matter most to viewers here.

The regular coverage returns next week, but rather late to the party.

The result has tennis fans outraged and those following the Canadian players on both the men’s and women’s tour miffed at the indifference from Sportsnet, given parent company Rogers remains a presenting sponsor.

A Sportsnet spokesman says the change in coverage is “adjusting to the tournament’s expanded format” given the simultaneous men’s and women’s events take place over two weeks.

In the early going, what will viewers notice the most? If they care about Canadian tennis, plenty.

It was never more evident than on Wednesday night when the bland and rambling ATP feed completely ignored one of the matches of great interest to viewers who have long enjoyed coverage of the annual Canadian professional stop.

If you were hoping to see popular Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in action against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, you had another thing coming.

The top-ranked Canadian in the event, at No. 28 in the world, may have been on centre court in the prime time slot, but he was nowhere to be found on Sportsnet.

Instead, the network was showing Arthur Fils and Pablo Carreno Busta, a match we can confidently predict would have had zero interest from Canadian fans unless either player has relatives here. The only justification — such as it is — would be that Fils was the No. 15 seed, but tucked away on a back court. It was action definitely not made for prime time nor made for the domestic audience and looked second rate.

What would have been one of the bigger stories in the opening week of the National Bank Open — Auger-Aliassime’s meek straight-sets exit — was instead all but ignored. No live coverage beyond a couple of updates, no reaction from the Canadian and certainly no analysis.

It got worse. When providing an update, the ATP announcers muttered something about Auger-Aliassime not being able to contend for a home win to delight the Canadian crowd.

“We had one (Canadian win), but it was not in the open era,” the voice said. “I’ll have to find out who it was. I did read it somewhere.”

Ouch.

But this is what happens when a network risks a universal feed made for a world audience by going on the cheap. Perhaps there is an arrogance that viewers would watch no matter what coverage appeared, but on a night when there was no Blue Jays baseball, there was a chance for Canadian sports fans to rally around Auger-Aliassime.

Adding to the embarrassment is the fact that not only is Auger-Aliassime a popular Canadian (and an Olympic medallist last summer in Paris) he’s a Rogers sponsored athlete and involved in a cross promotion at a recent Blue Jays game when he tossed out the ceremonial first pitch. He was on the big court in prime time for a reason.

By extension, the exclusion of the top-seeded Canuck was a bad look for Tennis Canada, which has to be seething at the work of its broadcast partner.

Sportsnet is picking up the world feed for the women’s portion of the tournament in Montreal as well on one of the other Sportsnet channels.

However, in that case, Canadian fans got lucky. Not only did television viewers get to see both of Eugenie Bouchard’s matches, but they also had uninterrupted coverage of the post-match celebration of the retiring Bouchard’s career after her loss Wednesday.

The bad news for Sportsnet? A tough run for the National Bank Open with big-seed withdrawals is now without it’s two top hopes (and top ratings draws) on the men’s side given the early exits of Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.

The good news for Sportsnet? Full production returns on Saturday with Rob Faulds (play-by-play), Jimmy Arias (analyst) and Jesse Levine (courtside reporter) in Toronto and Caroline Cameron (play-by-play) Tracy Austin (analyst) and Danielle Michaud (courtside reporter) in Montreal.

At least the tournament — a summer highlight for Canadian sports fans — gets the big-league treatment it deserves, even if it is maddeningly late.