The Sports Thread #1 For 3/7/14: The Televised Growth of Tennis' "6th Slam"
First off, I wanted to start this off with some well wishes and prayers for both Matt Cronin and Elena Baltacha, as both are now battling cancer. The tennis community is firmly behind them in their fights to rid of that awful disease for sure. Matt was unable to attend Indian Wells as he mentioned on his website , while Elena announced her terrible news today on her website. Everybody certainly hope they pull through, with Matt saying on Twitter that his first surgery went well . Onto better news is the perspective on the BNP Paribas Open, and how it is finally being televised early. For the first time ever, at least a portion of the first round is being broadcasted at Indian Wells, with a live pregame show to setup the day (on Tennis Channel/TennisTV, while BTSport at least in Britain has the WTA coverage) . This is something that should have happened a long time ago, even well before Ellison cemented his Oracle wealth and made it into arguably the best non-Slam event (more o...