With so many comments about JMAC doing Wimbledon I wonder how anyone can judge a tennis play by play commentator.  JMAC has done Wimbledon, and the US Open for so long and now is doing the French that it seems stale.  I love it when Becker or other players get time in the booth.  Andre was expecially interesting during a US Open telecast.  I also love it when during the early rounds at the Open they go up into the stands and interview celebs.  It's just entertainment so make it fun. 

 I kind of miss Bud Collins and my feelings for Murphy Jensen have warmed up a bit.  I expect to catch some "Flach" for this comment.  I also love Tracy Austin and think she is a huge credit to the game.  She is always very considerate of the players and others and doesn't feel like she has to create new usage in English like some women who used to partner with the world's greatest doubles player.

 I think alot of what happens depends on the deal the ex players' agents have struck for them and of course how interested and interesting they can be.    Tennis Week deserves MUCHO MUCHO credit for bringing in Carrie Milbank  WOW thanks TW - not looking for any Aphrodite lectures here please.

LendlFan:

   I'm a huge Carrie Milbank fan too - love the enthusiasm. I thought John McEnroe and Agassi working together during the Roddick-Federer match last year was one of the best teams I've heard. Agassi would be fantastic if he ever wanted to pursue commentary more. I've heard mixed reviews on Becker from friends who have watched him on the BBC. Some say he's informative and limits his comments so he only speaks when he has something to say, while others have told me he's pretty generic and basically doesn't give you anything you don't already know.

   I like Courier a lot - he has an opinion and is very good breaking down a match. Cliff and Cahill together in Stanford was a good team, IMO. And I think Jimmy Arias is very good at setting up a match and adjusting as the players adjust. Example: yesterday before final he spoke about how Simon basically plays high percentage cross court and will only really go down the line when he has the short ball set up for the kill shot and Simon essentially did just that throughout the match. Also said Tursunov would win or lose based on his first serve and he was on target there. He's not afraid to criticize either when warranted. Still love the Cliff-Patrick McEnroe team - wish they did more.
 

Saw something funny during the Serena/Wozniak match on Saturday.

They had Drysdale breaking down Serena's forehand with the aid of slo mo.You could see that it was a terrible forehand, off the back foot, not moving into it, just your basic Serena bad technique muscling the ball kind of forehand. But with slo mo, Drysdale is trying to tell you the good things about, which there were none. After he finished Cahill told you the honest truth. Didnt show up Drysdale, but clearly pointed out all the flaws.

Drysdale must have ripped the producer a new one for not picking a better fh to demonstrate

insert after 'Cahill told" (in a thousand or more words)..cannot stand Cahill(a male Tracy Austin)..he just wont give his mouth a rest, but will give him this... most of the time he shuts up when ball is in play...imo

Yeah, I saw that. She sometimes takes the racket back too high, IMO, on the fh side (not that my own fh is remotely close to being anywhere near as good as hers), which can create some timing issues. But also in that case it was tough because as either Cahill or Pam (can't remember which) said she was just flat footed after nearly every shot, presumably because of the knee problem. She would hit it and just stand still rather than getting back on her toes and recovering to the center of the court so when Cahill was talking about the tendency for players to load up on the back leg and drive through the ball can see where the knee issue would inhibit that.

I think Serena tends to hit the fh cleaner moving even closer to the baseline because it forces her to kind of cut down on the loop on the backswing and accelerate the racket through the shot faster. Looks like she tends to hold it for a second on the follow through sometimes - maybe to kind of emphasize the important of the finish. Also, she's so great at racket preparation - at getting the racket back quickly off both fh and bh sides - but sometimes it looks like she has it back so fast on the fh side she's almost forced to wait which can occasionally create a kind of double-clutching waiting for the ball, like the racket is there, she's ready and then she has to pause a split second because she's so early whereas with Federer, Nadal etc. it's more of a continuous swing.  Love her her service motion.  Cahill pointed out during Wimbledon that Baghdatis sometimes decelerates his swing on the fh side rather than accelerating when he is under pressure and said he was familiar with that as he used to do it too in his playing days. Have always wondered how various pros correct the stroke when they have an issue with it in the match. Once saw Laver speak at a clinic and he said whenever his stroke would go off in the midst of a match he would try to hit even harder and hit right down the middle to give himself a margin for error but hitting harder forced him to speed up the racket.