UTR Pro Match Series - The 2020 (Re) Open

[Chas Tennis]

I had not looked at Tennis Channel for 2 months, a big change for me.

I turned Tennis Channel on yesterday and found that there are some live tennis matches taking place!

It was called UTR Pro Match Series -- The 2020 (Re) Open

It is based on a different format and social distancing. 2 service line judges and a Chair person. 4 players, round robin.

Anyone interested in some of the new Covid 19 practices should take a look.

 

[norcal]

I find it fun to see the players call lines and fetch their own balls. I noticed they don't go to the towel nearly as much lol! Nice camera angle too. Looks like they built the court just for this event (in the middle of nowhere).

 

[Chas Tennis]

They have a camera on a boom outside the back fence. I have seen a boom like it up-close at the US Open. It is used to view the crowd outside the main stadium.

If the camera were higher and zoomed in, it could get camera views from above the server. If the camera were high speed video, then they could show Opelka's serve from above. There are hardly any high speed videos from above and nearly none of today's servers.

I hope that they add a slow motion stroke analysis capabilty to their TV coverage.

 

[Friedman Whip]

Opelka won and is looking good these days. They said that 2 weekends from now 4 women are going to play using the same format. Anisimona is one of the players.

 

[Chas Tennis]

The ladies are on Tennis Channel now.

Women's Tennis: The 2020 (Re) Open: UTR Pro Match Series

Collins
Anisimova
Riske
Tomljanovic

 

[Subway Tennis]

I'm not a fan of the roving fence cam. The narrow angle non-fixed camera setup feels very cheap and nasty to me. Panning the court on a skewed angle when there is so much movement to cover from the players makes it hard to appreciate the play properly.

The geometry of a tennis court is perfectly setup for TV viewing but the angle they give us here reminds me of someone walking between bad seats in the stands.

These type of one-off series style events desperately need to have showcase style high production values to have any type of impact imo.

I know I'm being cynical, but this feels like a pretty dodgy land grab by Tennis Channel and UTR to get the jump on some unsanctioned tennis content and it feels rushed and unprofessional. USTA broadcasts content like this for free. Subscribers are being short-changed here. People shouldn't be paying a premium for this.

 

[Chas Tennis]

I was just pointing out that the boom camera with slow motion had some potential to show a more overhead view of some of the strokes. My hope is that Tennis Channel might show some of this quality. Maybe that camera on the boom has a high speed video mode and might get a view that would be useful, especially for showing the serve. Opelka's uppermost body motion was very fast and interesting looking.......

Kick serve of Frank Salazar. Fuzzy Yellow Balls overhead video. This camera angle shows both the backward-forward direction as well as the side-to-side direction. (Height is not so well shown from above.)

Forehand.

Videos from this camera angle are very rare and there are very few of today's best players.

What is the angle of the hand path relative to the ball's trajectory for the kick serve as viewed from above? Try getting that from a typical view of a camera on the ground. Are most servers looking at the ball at impact? Is Frank Salazar?

 

[norcal]

People are already paying a subscription fee to see what? Replays of old matches? How exactly are they being 'short changed' by being shown live tennis rather than more replays?

Subscribers are being short-changed here. People shouldn't be paying a premium for this.

 

[Subway Tennis]

People are already paying a subscription fee to see what? Replays of old matches? How exactly are they being 'short changed' by being shown live tennis rather than more replays?

Fair point. They shouldn't be paying for either option imo. I guess while they can't really give people what they signed up for, it would be nice to offer a suspension of subscription fees or a reduced rate. TC doing it's bit while everyone else is also taking a hit.

I was just pointing out that the boom camera with slow motion had some potential to show a more overhead view of some of the strokes. My hope is that Tennis Channel might show some of this quality. Maybe that camera on the boom has a high speed video mode and might get a view that would be useful, especially for showing the serve. Opelka's uppermost body motion was very fast and interesting looking.......

Kick serve of Frank Salazar. Fuzzy Yellow Balls overhead video. This camera angle shows both the backward-forward direction as well as the side-to-side direction. (Height is not so well shown from above.)

Forehand.

Videos from this camera angle are very rare and there are very few of today's best players.

What is the angle of the hand path relative to the ball's trajectory for the kick serve as viewed from above? Try getting that from a typical view of a camera on the ground. Are most servers looking at the ball at impact? Is Frank Salazar?

It is a very interesting angle from a diagnostic standpoint. You can see what both sides of the body are doing and the body position in relation to contact point.

 

[Chas Tennis]

............................
It is a very interesting angle from a diagnostic standpoint. You can see what both sides of the body are doing and the body position in relation to contact point.

On the forehand, the above camera view shows the separation angle - the angle between the line between the two shoulders and the line between the two hips. That's important to get trunk twist muscles involved in the forehand. Also, the acceleration of the off arm and its timing is shown very clearly and the timing of when the off arm is pulled in to add speed to uppermost body turn is shown.

I just saw the boom camera again. It's just a counter weighted boom, and it looks as if its movement was manually powered. The boom at the US Open had similar counterweights, but I don't know how it was powered.