The fall Asian swing has been a bit of a snoozer for both the WTA and ATP tennis tours.
Fans are hard pressed to find many matches that elicit excitement or merit the energy to get up early in the morning on the East Coast to watch live.
Saturday finally gave us one, it is the Ningbo Open semifinal match between WTA World No. 1 Elena Rybakina and Diana Shnaider. However, it is not on Tennis Channel; apparently, streaming it with the TC paid subscription service is the only way to watch it. The subscription costs $11.99 per month or $109 per year.
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Tennis Channel is showing ATP 250 Almaty Open instead
We should be relieved that tennis is being shown since lately the channel is opting for pickleball coverage in the afternoons instead of replaying Asian matches. That’s another baffling decision because there is a dedicated pickleball channel.
However, Stefanos Tsitsipas’s match at the ATP 250 Almaty Open is not as much of a crowd pleaser. This is no slight on Tsitsipas who is a former ATP World No. 3, but his opponent is outside the Top 100.
Besides, a 250-level tournament is not as important as the 500-level one at Ningbo.
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Shnaider is playing great tennis
In addition to the fact that Ningo is a higher-tier tournament, Rybakina’s opponent is WTA World No. 13 Diana Shnaider who took out Alexandra Eala and Iva Jovic, both Top 20 players, en route to the semifinal.
This latest move gives fans little confidence that the all-American Lyon Open semifinal between Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul will be shown on the non-subscription based Tennis Channel later in the morning.
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