(06-10-2023 01:58 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: Lost, 3 and 1. More details later........
Sorry - been too busy to follow-up.....
Unfortunately, NBC pulled a "Heidi" (I think most of you are old enough to know what that means), and shifted the broadcast over to Peacock, and since I don't believe in "pay TV", I didn't get to see any of it after it was 3-4 in the first set. But it was moderately clear that Austin Krajicek (distantly-related to former Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek) had much game. In fact, he's now ranked #1 in the world in doubles, moving up from #4(?)(5?) with that win. Anyway, Gille and his partner Joran Vliegen competed well, until that 8th game, in which Krajicek and his partner, Ivan Dodig broke, and then ran out the set. Apparently, then...........Gille and Vliegen won the first game of the second set, before being steamrolled to a 6-1 loss therein.
The announcers, who included Mary Carillo and Johnny Mac, mentioned that 3 of the 4 players in the match played college tennis in the U.S. I heard them note that Krajicek played for Texas A&M, and that Vliegen played for East Carolina, but I did not catch them mentioning ETSU and Gille - but that may have happened after they switched over to Peacock. While yes, altho "it's just doubles", it's still a very nice feather in the cap of an ETSU guy - not to mention a pretty decent paycheck. He now moves up to the #25 world ranking in doubles, from ~40 at the start of the French.
I'm not sure why, but the ETSU SID people seemed to do an above-average job of covering this tournament. (Other than laughably confusing of "points" and "games". "Dodig and Krajicek went on to win the final six points....."
) Kinda puzzling, but so be it.
https://www.etsubucs.com/mtennis/news/20...mpionship/
Would be so nice if they could cover ETSU matches in a like manner.
As an additional note.................the switch over to Peacock was due to a soccer match. Which would have been understandable and ok, as "it's only doubles", after all.
BUT...............it was a **replay** of a soccer match. Pre-empting a LIVE event for something taped just isn't right, no matter *what* it is.
But as per usual, NBC didn't ask me.
Will be interesting to see if Gille and Vliegen can capitalize on this performance going forward. Hard to say, with grass courts and then hard courts coming up.....