The Italian Open WTA and ATP 1000-level tournament is underway in Rome, and Tennis Channel is the US broadcaster of the event.
While the network puts some analysts on the ground, many stay behind in Los Angeles and work the flagship TC Live show between, before, and after matches.
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On Wednesday’s live show, Sam Querrey made a blunder that the network admirably did not ignore. Instead Tennis Channel tweeted it.
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What Querrey said
The three studio hosts were making Italian Open predictions when Querrey boldly stated that Mutua Madrid Open champion Marta Kostyuk was the player he predicted to make a deep run.
The other hosts looked confused. A few awkward seconds passed until Tracy Austin told him that Kostyuk withdrew from the tournament one day earlier.
Querrey took it in stride by putting his hand to his forehead and thinking on the fly of how to recover.
We can hardly wait to see what his Nothing Major podcast co-hosts have to say about this when the next episode drops.
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What it means
Querrey’s error points to the fact that the tennis season is at a frightening pace right now, and even the media has trouble keeping up.
It also does not help that TC doesn’t send a big group to the tournaments. The Los Angeles crew is working with second-hand information across multiple time zones.
In an era where media gaffes are made all the time, in all facets of life, we could not help but chuckle at Querrey’s error and Tennis Channel embracing it by posting it to social media.