TV

Fans Are Pissed Channel Seven Dumped Ash Barty’s Wimbledon Match In Favour Of A Men’s Game

To make things worse, Sunrise appeared to mislead viewers about why they made the decision.

by Tom Clift  3 July 2019
Ash Barty

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World number one Ash Barty has continued her stellar run of form with a straight-sets victory over China’s Zheng Saisai at Wimbledon on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, Australian viewers didn’t get to see her do it, on account of Channel Seven airing a men’s game instead.

The network came under fire on social media after deciding to keep the broadcast focused on the match between Australians Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson instead of cutting to Barty’s clash with Zheng.

Seven addressed the backlash on Sunrise on Wednesday morning, with sports reporter Mark Beretta attempting to justify the decision.

“Nick Kyrgios’ match started at 11pm. 1am is when Ash’s match starts,” Beretta said. “But Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson are slugging it out over five sets. They run long. People have been watching for two hours, and at the climax of the match, we’re gonna say, ‘let’s go to Ash now’? That’s the difficult decision.”

“We flicked between the two matches until Nick was done and then we went with Ash. That’s how it unfolded. And the nature of our arrangement with Wimbledon is that we can only show one match on one channel at any one time.”

But Sunrise host David Koch was not convinced, declaring that not showing Barty’s match was “like cutting out Mother Theresa”.

“It [would be] like watching a movie for two hours and then just before the finish you change it,” Beretta countered.

Kochie wasn’t the only one unimpressed with the explanation. Sports journalist Neil McMahon pointed out that Beretta had his match times wrong and said that Kyrgios’ match was “nowhere near a fifth set” when Barty’s match started.

Likewise, Barty’s former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua suggested that Seven would have made a very different decision if Barty had been a man.

Told about the coverage after the game, Barty said it was up to the broadcaster to make a decision.

“If people can watch my matches, great. If they can’t, they can’t. That’s up to the broadcaster, that’s not up to me.”

Kyrgios, meanwhile, said he thought both matches would have been aired.

“I don’t have much to do with that. But obviously, I mean, Ash, what she’s doing on the tennis court now is pretty special. I actually told a lot of people that I thought she was going to win Wimbledon as well … I thought they probably would show both.”

Photo by Rob Keating/robiciatennis.com (CC BY-SA 2.0)