First Serve: August 9 - 15

TENNIS.com's Monday morning quarterback recaps last week's pro tennis action—and offers his reaction.

Last Week's Tournaments

A Good Weekend Spoiled
In the first significant week of tennis since Wimbledon, the top four seeds at the Rogers Cup advanced to the tournament's final four, while Cincinnati got a star-studded final in Maria Sharapova vs. Kim Clijsters. All in all, good publicity for the sport, right?

It depends who you ask. On Friday, America was shut out from the highly-anticipated Roger Federer-Tomas Berdych quarterfinal in Toronto until ESPN2's coverage wrapped up in Cincinnati. (Neither ESPN2 nor Tennis Channel opted to cover the night session in Canada from the onset.) It's admirable that the network gave us any sort of bonus coverage, but unless you watched the match online in its entirety, you missed the full dramatic arc.

On Saturday, it was the fans in Cincinnati who suffered. After just three games, Ana Ivanovic retired from her semifinal match against Clijsters with a foot injury. Yeah, there was a doubles match on the stadium court afterward, but it was still a tough break for those in the stands.

Both couch potatoes and in-person attendees had a frustrating Sunday. Rain interrupted both finals—the women's with Sharapova leading 6-2, 5-3, after Clijsters saved three match points—killing the momentum of the matches and throwing a wrench into TV coverage. ESPN2 left Toronto during its rain delay to show the tape-delayed Cincinnati final, but kept the tape rolling even as the Federer-Andy Murray final resumed. The conclusion was eventually shown nearly two hours later. (For ESPN's comment on this decision, click here.)

The sport seems to be picking up right where it left off last summer, when poor weather ruined the weekend in New Haven and postponed the U.S. Open men's final until Monday (this also happened in 2008). Tennis die-hards have learned to put up with such stop-and-go traffic, but casual fans—the people the tours target—might not be as patient. Good tennis was in abundant supply last weekend; unfortunately, I bet some people didn't notice it.

This Week's Tournaments

Ed McGrogan is an assistant editor for TENNIS.com. Follow him on Twitter.