The second week of Wimbledon is underway at the All England Club, and all ESPN2 "daytime match coverage this week will be live," according to Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY. ESPN2 coverage will run from 7:00-10:00am ET for Round of 16 action today, women's quarterfinals tomorrow and men's quarterfinals on Wednesday. On those days, the network "will also have coverage starting" at 1:00pm that will run for at least four hours. NBC, today through Wednesday, will cover Wimbledon between 10:00am-1:00pm "in all time zones," and its "Today" show will "keep its regular schedule everywhere." Through Wednesday, NBC "will pick the match it wants to show," so regardless of when it is played in real time, viewers will "see it at 10 a.m. in your local time zone." Hiestand notes "no matter when NBC's match on those days is played in real time -- and it could be over before NBC comes on-air -- you won't see highlights or scores from those matches on ESPN2" until at least 1:00pm ET. In the Pacific time zone, "you won't see the ESPN2 coverage that begins" at 1:00pm ET -- because it "would directly overlap with NBC's coverage." For the women's semifinals on Thursday and the men's semifinals on Friday, NBC "will choose the semifinal it wants." If it is the day's "second semifinal, ESPN2 can go ahead and air the first one live." But if NBC "picks the first semi, ESPN2's morning coverage will consist of filler such as chat and highlights and won't be allowed to mention what's happening in NBC's match until NBC finishes airing it in all time zones" (USA TODAY, 6/27). ESPN2's coverage this morning went until 10:21am ET so it could show the conclusion of the Marion Bartoli-Serena Williams match; the end of the match also aired on NBC (THE DAILY).
THE NO. 1 SEED: SI's Richard Deitsch last week "asked his Twitter followers which host they preferred on ESPN's Wimbledon coverage," Hannah Storm or Chris McKendry, and the "results came in about 90-10 in favor of McKendry." In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones writes, "McKendry might be the most underrated of ESPN's on-air talent. She's professional, charismatic and knows her stuff. For my money, McKendry is 'SportsCenter's' best anchor, and it's always a treat when she gets out of the studio to host tennis events" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 6/27).
LOCAL FAVORITE: The BBC drew a "staggering 8.8 million" viewers Friday night for Andy Murray's win over Ivan Ljubicic (London DAILY MAIL, 6/26).
