Livid tennis followers have lashed out at Channel 9 after the community snubbed 21-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic on evening two of the Australian Open.
The Serbian ace is the headline act within the prime half of the Males’s draw, following the last-minute withdrawal of controversial native star Nick Kyrgios, however he discovered himself ousted from air time to 2 unseeded Australians.
One fan posted Djokovic’s Enviornment entrance to Twitter as he acquired a standing ovation stating, “I’m sharing right here as a result of it’s not being televised, and also you received’t see it in any other case”.
Some followers labelled the choice a “sick joke”, and others criticised the broadcaster for utilizing the encounter to hype their protection with out really displaying the match.
The second day of the Open was thrown into chaos by excessive and weird Melbourne climate that noticed play suspended on outdoors courts throughout the afternoon for excessive warmth, just for play to once more be halted after the resumption by rain.
Thanasi Kokkinakis’ first-round encounter was broadcast on the free-to-air channels till it was suspended, with the Aussie simply two video games away from a straight units flogging of Italian Fabio Fognini.
Alex De Minaur’s cruisy opening sport was additionally proven earlier than a five-set epic between native Alexei Popyrin and Taiwan’s Chun-Hsin ‘Jason’ Tseng went into the late hours.
Popyrin got here out on prime to ship one other Aussie by way of.
However followers who needed to view Djokovic’s straight-sets demolition of Spaniard Roberto Carballés Baena needed to hunt it down on Channel 9’s streaming platform 9Now till late within the match, when it was ultimately switched to GEM.
It’s one other unusual name by the broadcaster, with scores dropping by 28 per cent on this time final yr, which comes after Channel Seven’s House and Away proved extra in style than the Open’s opening evening.
