Wimbledon's Men Final Garners Highest Overnight Since '00

NBC earned a 3.6/10 overnight Nielsen rating for its coverage of Sunday morning's Wimbledon men's final featuring Roger Federer-Andy Roddick, up 33% over last year's 2.7/8 for Federer-Mark Philippoussis. Sunday's number marks the best men's final overnight for Wimbledon since a 5.0/14 for Pete Sampras-Patrick Rafter in '00, the last time an American was in the final. Saturday morning's women's final featuring Maria Sharapova-Serena Williams earned a 3.9/11 overnight, down slightly from last year's 4.0/11 for the Serena-Venus Williams final (THE DAILY).

Lack Of Rallies During Men’s Matches Could Be A Problem Down The Road For Men’s Tennis

QUICK CHANGE: In DC, Matt Bonesteel wrote it was "hard to get a handle on Wimbledon this year" due to coverage switching between ESPN and NBC each day. But the "often-unwatchable play of the men's game ... might be a bigger problem for the networks than England's notorious weather or schizoid coverage agreements." Bonesteel: "The ball is hit with such force that service breaks have become rare (although there were breaks aplenty in the Federer-Roddick final) and rallies have become even rarer. It just doesn't make for entertaining television" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/5). SI's L. Jon Wertheim noted in an open letter to NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol that SI received 20 variations of the following fan letter: "I'm pleading with you to show and broadcast as many LIVE matches as you can, and stop re-airing Serena's matches. ... With NBC taking over ESPN's coverage for a few hours, viewers are not getting complete and live coverage. We get parts and pieces of matches." Wertheim added, "After a stellar first week, ESPN reverted to some shaky coverage choices." But a source said that ESPN was "hamstrung by NBC, whose choices of coverage took precedence. ... When NBC demanded to air [Lindsay Davenport-Sharapova] on tape-delay Thursday, ESPN was not allowed to show the match live" (SI.com, 7/5).