On my Facebook information page I have listed ‘tennis on sky sports’ as one of my favourite TV shows.
At university my house mates and I often found ourselves glued to the tv screen watching an epic ATP tour match.
We were very much involved in the tennis gambling scene and there were some very entertaining moments when bets were going well or badly.
For instance I particularly remember when fellow Tennis Centre writer Andrew Johnson lumped £50 on Rafael Nadal when he was a set down to David Nalbandian.
I however had identified this match as a potential banana skin for Nadal and had backed Nalbandian at a massive starting price of 7/1.
Nadal was simply awful throughtout the contest and Andrew was furious with the Spaniard’s lackluster performance.
Items went flying around the room as he shouted at the TV that he would never bet on tennis again while I performed a ’slide on knees’ celebration across the wooden flooring as the Argentine cruised to a 61 62 victory.
Although we have had many disagreements about who is going to win a match we both agree on one thing; the Sky Sports studio and commentary team are first class.
Presenter Marcus Buckland along with Mark Petchey, Barry Cowan, Barry Millns and Leif Sharas always provide lively commentary and insight with their tongue in cheek humour often making me chuckle.
Mark Petchey in particular is a truely gifted commentator who makes it look easy when it’s not.
One of my favourite quotes during commentary is Petchey’s decription of Igor Andreev in a recent match. He said: “When his A game isn’t working that’s where his alphabet stops.” What a comment!
Another stand out moment for me was when Buckland and Petchey were discussing an upcoming match between Nadal and Del Potro.
A graphic came up on the screen listing a number of attributes and Petchey had to decide who was better in each department e.g forehand, backhand, serve, speed etc.
My friends and I cracked up as he said Nadal was better at everything and that it would be a very one sided match.
However Petchey didn’t write off Del Potro completely. He cheekily gave him one thing in his favour - the ‘underdogs advantage’!
Thankfully for Petchey, his pre match analysis was proved right as Nadal comfortably defeated the Argentine in two sets.
