Heroes

During a match between Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco at the Rome Masters event, with Roddick having three match points, Verdasco's second serve clearly hit the centerline but was hesitantly called out by the line judge. Roddick saw that the ball had hit the line and signaled the chair umpire to check the mark. The umpire, quite aware that the call was wrong, did not need to leave his chair and awarded the point to Verdasco.

The match then proceeded and was won by Verdasco.

A fairly routine episode when the match is being played on clay and the mark can be inspected to determine if a disputed or uncertain line call was correct or not.

What was not so usual was the hype that this particular episode generated in the media - specifically the Tennis Channel - apparently eager to generate some 'good press' for the American idol who not only lost each of his three match points but then lost the match.

The Tennis Channel produced a special news feature - repeated often - entitled
"Roddick wins hearts, loses match"

It began:
"Andy Roddick's act of sportsmanship won him fans but may have cost him his match in Rome."
and ended - with rising enthusiasm from the narrator.
"Roddick's generous gesture confirms his status as one of the greatest ambassadors of the game..."

I was waiting for cascading trumpets and violins and a fade to eagle and American flag...

To his credit, Roddick himself seemed genuinely puzzled by the media attention
and took a much more down-to-earth view of the whole thing:

In his press conference after the match, he said:
"The ball was in, the referee would have come down. He would have seen it and called it in. I just saved him the trip"

Determined not to be dissuaded from an opportunity for hero-creation and worship, the Tennis Channel ignored the fact that this kind of thing happens in almost every professional match played on clay: the opponent thinks the ball is out, looks at it, realizes it's in and would be called good by the umpire, scrubs off the mark with his shoe and carries on with the game.

And the result of the media attention?  I have heard nothing but scorn for "American arrogance" - and worse...!

This type of media misinterpretation and manipulation does nothing for the game
or for Andy Roddick who, in spite of his own sensible interpretation of events,
has become tarnished by the predictable reaction to the Tennis Channel's 'spin'

And on the subject of the Tennis Channel, have they joined the current trend of outsourcing (their reporting) to
far-flung corners of the (English-speaking?) world:

"This is the consecutively INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking of the players,
in contrast to the INDESIT ATP Race which resumes every newly calendar year."