While at the amateur Eastern Grass Court Championships, in Rye, New York, NBC broadcast the first ever televised tennis match.
Americans had made a tradition of NBC's "Breakfast at Wimbledon"[1] specials during the tournament on weekends, in which live coverage (which under the guidance of then-NBC Sports executive producer Don Ohlmeyer[2] and associate producer Bob Basche,[3] began in 1979 for the men's rounds and in 1982 for the women) started early in the morning (as the Eastern Time Zone in the United States is five hours behind the United Kingdom) and continued well into the afternoon, interspersed with commentary and interviews from Bud Collins,[4] whose tennis acumen and patterned trousers are well known to tennis fans in the United States.
[5] Enberg regularly concluded the network's coverage of the two-week event with thematically appropriate observations accompanied by a montage of video clips.
The AELTC grew frustrated with NBC's policy of waiting to begin its quarterfinal and semifinal coverage until after the conclusion of Today at 10 a.m. local, as well as broadcasting live only to the Eastern Time Zone and using tape-delay in all others.
NBC issued a statement saying it had been outbid for the rights to future broadcasts, and beginning with the 2012 tournament, all live coverage moved exclusively to ESPN.
Under the terms of this new deal, NBC would broadcast an additional ten hours of live coverage,[12] including matches on Memorial Day and the women's semifinals.
In June 2024, it was reported[14] that the U.S. rights to the French Open had been acquired by TNT Sports beginning in 2025, as part of an overall deal with Warner Bros.
[15][16] Consequently, the men's singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev on June 9, 2024 would mark the last French Open match to air on NBC, and the last tennis event overall on the network, for the foreseeable future.
He broadcast the US Open for 22 years on USA Network, receiving acclaim for his partnership with John McEnroe, which continued on NBC and Tennis Channel.
Like her longtime friend and fellow Douglaston, Queens, New York City native John McEnroe, Carillo is known for her colorful turns of phrase, and is credited with coining "Big Babe Tennis" to describe the era in women's tennis dominated by large, powerful players such as Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
[36][37] Carillo's unabashed and opinionated style of commentary has drawn criticism from several top players, notably Andre Agassi, Serena and Venus Williams, and Maria Sharapova.
A modernized graphics package for the telecasts rolled out in 1999, based around translucent black rectangles, with beveled gold bars at the top and bottom, with blue accents for most sports (green for golf, purple for Wimbledon, and orange for the tennis French Open).
Scoring bugs were still not a permanent feature, as they disappeared during plays until 2005, when the network introduced horizontal scorebars for its coverage of college football and hockey, which did not match the other graphics.