Tuesday, April 23, 2013

BB&T Atlanta Open 2013 - new seating chart

This year's BB&T Atlanta Open at Atlantic Station will have a new seating chart!

Whereas last year's seating featured a pedestrian walkway behind Row F in the "end-zones", the 2013 layout will have two portals for entry and 12 consecutive rows (A-M) for seating. The south end-zone will also features suites, in addition to those on Market Street (from the 2012 layout), and the sponsor (BB&T) suite will be located in the northwest corner. Below is a chart of the new Stadium Court:

Tickets are now available for the July 20-28 event and volunteering opportunities are expected to be posted on the tournament's website by May 5.

Monday, April 1, 2013

CBS Sports pulls an ESPN, and tennis fans lose again

While it's not quite the same as missing the end of a high quality 3-set match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, tennis fans did miss the opportunity to see the end of Andy Murray's third set tiebreaker (and match) victory over David Ferrer in Miami's Sony Open yesterday.

Yes, CBS was obligated to cover a couple of NCAA "March Madness" basketball games on Sunday afternoon. However, their assumption that all tennis fans get "The Tennis Channel" - so you won't mind if we switch channels on you before the decisive tiebreaker - was not just wrong, but arrogant. Yeah, yeah, we all know that there's no comparison - ratings-wise - between tennis and NCAA basketball, especially with two berths to the Final Four (here in Atlanta this year) being decided, but couldn't they have delayed the start of the Michigan-Florida game a minute or two? I'm sure the Gators would have appreciated it, especially since they obviously weren't ready at the scheduled start time. And after all, hasn't the men's final at the U.S. Open been delayed some Sundays in September while the day's first NFL games are finishing?

I know, no one cares except tennis fans, "get a life" and all that ...