Madrid Open: Disappointed Coco Gauff Fans Demand Rightful Streaming of Her Intense Encounter Against Madison Keys

For the second year running, the Madrid Open has given fans something to fume about. Remember how the tournament organizers didn’t give the 2023 women’s doubles finalists the chance to address the crowd, but the men’s finalists did? Or how ball girls had to wear cropped shirts and short skits? Oh, and who can forget ‘Cake-gate’? Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz both celebrated their birthdays in the Spanish capital. One got a three-tiered cake, and the other got a small single-layered one. You can guess which was which. Well, it seems like a few things haven’t gotten better this year.

The Madrid Open is one of the Masters tournaments that happens simultaneously for the ATP and WTA Tour. With the drive for equality going on for a while now, you would expect streaming services and channels to give the same amount of broadcasting time to both tours. However, that’s not the case. Let’s take the example of the first-round match between Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani. During Tennis Channel’s broadcast, the match was switched in between to show a men’s encounter instead. This time around, something similar happened as Coco Gauff took on Madison Keys.

By ‘something similar,’ we mean the intense all-American battle was altogether absent from Tennis Channel’s coverage. Considering the network is American, fans expected to see the channel feature the match as Madison Keys fought tremendously well to defeat the third-seeded Coco Gauff in three sets. Yes, YouTube added Tennis Channel and TC2 to feature the match, but the execution was subpar, according to viewers. And it was a match with everything from multiple breaks of serve and stunning shot-making to excellent comebacks.

In the first set, Keys fought back from 2-5 down to win the set 7-6. After Gauff took the second set 6-4, Keys went down a break in the third. From 2-4 down, the 29-year-old sealed the set, 6-4, and the match. Yes, Coco Gauff may have made 13 double faults (equivalent to giving away 3 games and a point), apart from numerous other unforced errors, but the consistency Keys showed when it mattered won her the match. Needless to say, many felt it should’ve been witnessed by more than just the crowd in the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium.

What’s also important to note is that Keys’ quarterfinal opponent, Ons Jabeur, brought this issue up after her Round of 16 match. The Tunisian said, “I feel like definitely tennis is one of the sports that I’m proud to play as a woman. I feel like we have a long way, especially here in Madrid, in Rome, [and] in Europe in general. I feel like they need to respect women more and they need to respect how we are playing.” She added just what she thinks about the broadcasting situation of women’s tennis.

She said, “I’m definitely one of the people [who wants to] speak up. I really enjoy watching women’s tennis, enjoy watching women’s sports in general. I think we deserve better. It’s not like we are not making any effort and asking for more than what we deserve.” Considering all this, especially Jabeur’s comments, the tennis community wasn’t happy about what happened (or rather, didn’t) during Gauff and Keys’ match.

After sidelining Coco Gauff and Madison Keys, Tennis Channel tried limiting damage for furious fans

As mentioned earlier, there was some tremendous shot-making throughout the match. With Keys and Gauff both being hard hitters, their rallies were high-intensity. The WTA Tour’s official X account shared a highlight from the first set when Gauff was 5-2 up and hit a passing shot, writing,

“Hey Siri, define ‘thing of beauty.’” Evidently displeased, a fan replied, “Too bad @TennisChannel was glitching, and we couldn’t actually see it live.”

In 2018,

Tennis Channel acquired the rights to broadcast WTA Tour events, helping it out of a deal with beIN Sports, with which the tour was barely visible in the US. The number of viewers increased from around 22 million to almost 55 million! Considering this and the fact that it is an American channel, many couldn’t get past the fact they weren’t featuring the match between Gauff and Keys.

An angry fan questioned,

“Hey @TennisChannel, you do know there are two American women, Coco Gauff and Madison Keys, playing each other in a close match right now, right? Why are you not featuring their match?” With a similar sentiment, another wrote, “I find it interesting the @TennisChannel has determined the match between #CocoGauff and Madison Keys is NOT worth airing. NOT even on Tennis Channel 2. SMH!”

Replying to this, another viewer couldn’t help but bring up what they didn’t like about

TC2’s broadcast: how the commentators’ booth covers almost half of the screen. “Yes but hate the T2 format. You see 3 guys sitting at a table for half the screen. The match should be full screen,” they wrote. However, the match did start broadcasting on TC2, but despite those arrangements, a few weren’t happy with the execution.

 

At this rate, the broadcaster is at risk of losing viewership. In fact, one fan even admitted to having already disengaged from the streaming service. They wrote, “One of many reasons I didn’t renew my @tennisChannel account. Not happy.” As the streaming debacle unfolded, Tennis Channel apologized, saying, “Hi! We are aware of the streaming issues on the Coco Gauff match and working hard to fix it as soon as possible!”

Replying to this, an X user asked them to improve their standards, expressing, “Work harder. Y’all have been bad for a while. But this is feeling a lot like sabotage.” Sabotage or not, a few understood why Tennis Channel was showing a men’s match. “I agree, but the all-time greatest and superman of clay (Rafael Nadal) is on. They have an excuse. This time only.” At the time, Rafa was playing against Pedro Cachin, which could’ve been the Spaniard’s last match on home soil. But a three-set thriller ended in victory for Nadal. The fan added, “We’ve been here when it’s Zverev, Iga or Sabalenka playing too.”

What were your thoughts on how Coco Gauff’s match against Madison Keys was broadcast?