As an antidote to the endless soccer and wrestling on UBC, I attended the Bangkok Open 5 straight days last week. To me, the conditions were ideal for watching sports. Ticket prices were cheap--200 and 300 baht; few spectators were there, so I could sit anywhere and not be crowded; the hotel venue was copacetic; three matches were in progress at any time, and from the top of the grandstand I could watch all three; the players, almost all ranked in the top 100 in the world, were highly skilled and very competitive, not to mention good-looking; the weather, apart from a couple rain delays, was lovely.

I could not attend the final match, but was happy to be able to watch on ITV. However, ITV badly botched their live coverage of the PTT Bangkok Open tennis tournament on Sunday afternoon. The final match was between Thailand's own #1 player, Tamarine Tanasugarn, and the exciting prodigy from USA, Vania King. With a good crowd of enthusiastic spectators on hand at Rama Gardens Hotel in Bangkok, the match began as scheduled at 3:15 pm. Tamarine (Tammy to her many fans) started beautifully, winning the first set 6-2. Vania came back strong in the second set to win 6-4. Then came the customary break before the third and deciding set. ITV cut away to a news summary at 4:55, but I was sure they would return to show the rest of the tennis match. Thus, I and many other tennis fans were shocked to see that a Thai drama started at 5 pm., and the tennis coverage had ended prematurely. This is an incredible insult to Tammy and the viewers. Doesn't ITV know or care that tennis matches can and often do last longer than two sets and two hours?

Reading the thread about the recent Thailand Open men's tennis tournament, I see that this kind of poor coverage of local sports is not unusual.

"Channel 3 is a major sponsor & their live coverage on tv is minimal. Even Paradorn cannot compete with regular evening tv programs!!"

"The only way to see the tournament is actually to go there! I went on Wednesday, which was too bad. Even when watching the Safin v Merzca match, they took it off at 16.30 to show some recorded rubbish, I do wish the tournament would get a better TV deal. I recall three years ago we did get to see some of the evening matches, and even yesterday evening, at 23.00 there was no recoreded tennis, on, the internet has been the only I have been able to follow it! "

I was there to see the ladies play 3 times this week at Rama Gardens. It is amazing how well they hit the ball and how fierce the competition is.

I too was disappointed and angry/shocked that the TV cut away with Thailand's own Tamarine playing for the championship. It may be one of the last times she had a good shot at a title and on Thai soil to boot. Very sad the mangers of the station chose to cut away for the deciding final set. Shame on them.

BTW, Rama Gardens is a pretty nice looking and spacious hotel. I had dinner one night in the restaurant and the food was excellent and not too expensive.