Oh joy. More PMac and Carillo.

USA Network, the longtime home of weeknight coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, will no longer televise the tournament after this year.

The United States Tennis Association, which stages the U.S. Open during the last week in August and the first week in September at the U.S. National Tennis Center in New York, has yet to complete a new deal to replace USA. However, people familiar with the situation say the event's weekday coverage is likely to end up on Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN network of channels or the Tennis Channel, a small, independent network.

Paul Melvin, a spokesman for ESPN, confirmed the network was in talks with the USTA. Eric Abner, a spokesman for the Tennis Channel, said, "We are in discussions, but there is no agreement right now." Chris Widmaier, a spokesman for the USTA, said the organization is currently negotiating with "a number of different parties about the cable package for 2009" and beyond.

Far worse for me than these two is more Cliff Drysdale. Oy vay

horrible news. just terrible.

tracy and john have been a part of my late summer evenings for years.

this may be the death knell.

From today's NYT:

The event is going to ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel.

USA’s lead analysts, Mary Carillo, who already works for ESPN, and John McEnroe, are expected to follow the Open in its network changeover. They also work for CBS Sports.

You know, I always loved watching the night matches on USA. Their willingness to go deep into the early hours was special. I will miss the coverage.

I will not miss Tracy Austin, however. She's the pits.

Back in the old days, when only an occasional regular tournament final would be televised, when the women's French Open final was shown on tape delay (and then compressed to fit into the time frame (anyone remember the 1985 classic between Chris & Martina...they skipped most of the second set) and the showing of the men's final was often bumped for a telethon, when even Wimbledon was only shown for a few hours on the weekend (middle Sunday was rehash since they don't play) and on the Fourth of July, USA coverage was an absolute feast. To be able to watch matches during a tournament, not just the final! And in the evening, not just on a holiday. With continuation if the match went long....as a fan I enjoyed USA's coverage. Always gave a little bit of the flavor of a tournament, rather than just one match. As a viewer, I enjoyed it (without realizing it) because we weren't bombarded with tickers/uptotheminutes/sportscenterpreviewshighlightswe'llshowitahundredtimesandtellyoutostaytundedtoseeitonsportscenter!!!!!!). Ok, maybe I'm being a little harsh, but since the season is almost upon us of choosing a yak fest over live tennis at a major, I can only cut the sports channel people only but so much slack for choosing running mouths to sports.

No comment on the commentators. lol

I won't miss Michael Barkan, this I know for sure. I will miss Tracey, although I feel guilty for saying it given other's dislike (lol). Good points goodhands about ESPN's coverage. It seemed like they were getting a little better in the last few tournaments they covered. Hopefully they learned from the debacle that is FoxSportsNet.

I do like the partnership with Tennis Channel though. I'll with hold judgement until after the two have partnered on the the remaining three majors this year.