Great to see Nick McArdle playing a key hosting role as part of Nine’s Tennis coverage.
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Yeah he’s great.
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cool nick McArdle great host on 9 tennis coverage
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He’s excellent, IMO, right up there with James Bracey. He was a part of it last summer too, but I think due to personal reasons abruptly left after some days. He’ll host the 9Gem feed in prime time the next couple of weeks for the Aus Open.
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He was a great Sunrise host with Mel Doyle many years ago. 
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That was an eternity ago, good recall, didn’t Matt White replace him (famously defecting from Ten where he’d been a rising star and then became a star at Seven). I think this was when Seven Sydney was still out at Epping and even before the late Ian Ross came to steer them to No 1, when Ann Sanders was still anchoring the flagship bulletin. 2003 / 2004?
Anyone remember if McArdle had any involvement with Seven Sport at Melbourne Park or any other tennis tournament or on-location for Seven News Sydney sport back then?
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From memory Nick McArdle was the weekend sports presenter on Seven News Sydney in the early 2000s. It was Mark Beretta whom Matt White replaced on weeknights in mid-2004.
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Nick McArdle replaced Kochie on the previous version of Sunrise, when he took 6 months or so off to take his family travelling overseas. He would send postcards back to Mel and Nick to share on air. I think it was 1998, maybe?
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It will be interesting to see if Stan Sport’s supplementary live coverage of Australian Open (including exclusive 4K broadcast of matches played in Rod Laver Arena) have any effect on streaming numbers on 9Now.
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Wonder who Nine will put at 7pm after news in Sydney and Melbourne? It was meant to be Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic, who had to pull out with knee injury.
I’d be surprised if it’s not Stefanos Tsitsipas on Margaret Court Arena (also 7pm start), considering his popularity and seeding. I’d say Rod Laver Arena’s with Iga Swiatek (even if World No. 1 and multi-Slam champion herself now) will be on 9Gem. The all-Canadian match including a favourite in Felix Auger-Aliassime might still be going, so 9 or 9Gem might initially run with that. Later in the night Daniil Medvedev is back, he’s become a bit of a villian at Melbourne Park with fans.
Australian Open 2023 broadcast schedule: Day 1
The 2023 Australian Open will burst to life today when the world’s best tennis players begin their Grand Slam campaigns with exclusive coverage from 10.00am AEDT on Nine.
Rafael Nadal, defending Australian Open men’s champion and all-time winner of most Grand Slam titles (22), headlines the day session against Jack Draper of Great Britain.
Lighting up the night session will be women’s world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 3).
On Channel 9, the coverage will be hosted by James Bracey, Roz Kelly and Tony Jones, while on 9Gem, Nick McArdle, Emma Lawrence and Seb Costello will host Nine’s broadcast.
Commentary throughout the tournament will be provided by Jim Courier, Todd Woodbridge, Lleyton Hewitt, Jelena Dokic, Dylan Alcott, Casey Dellacqua, Sam Smith, Alicia Molik, Mark Philippoussis, Darren Cahill and Peter Psaltis.
Additional off-court reporting will come from Alicia Loxley, Matthew Pavlich, Clint Stanaway, Danika Mason and Madeline Slattery.
From today until Sunday, January 29, Channel 9HD and 9GemHD will have the best matches and biggest moments live and free across 276 hours of tennis coverage.
9Now will provide every point of every match, at any time on the device of your choosing, in full HD, with the new start-over button allowing fans to watch from the start of each session.
TODAY ON CHANNEL 9HD AND 9GemHD
DAY SESSION
Begins 11.00am AEDT
COCO GAUFF (USA) [7] v KATERINA SINIAKOVA (CZE)
FRANCES TIAFOE (USA) [16] v DANIEL ALTMAIER (GER)
RAFAEL NADAL (ESP) [1] v JACK DRAPER (GBR)
JASON KUBLER (AUS) v SEBASTIAN BAEZ (ARG)
JANNIK SINNER (ITA) [15] v KYLE EDMUND (GBR)
TALIA GIBSON (AUS) v CLARA BUREL (FRA)
NIGHT SESSION
Begins 7.00pm AEDT
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS (GRE) [3] v QUENTIN HALYS (FRA)
DANIIL MEDVEDEV [7] v MARCOS GIRON (USA)
IGA SWIATEK (POL) [1] v JULE NIEMEIER (GER)
In addition to Channel 9 and 9Now, Stan Sport will have every match ad-free, live and on demand.
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I think they forgot to add American seed/star Madison Keys, who will be on later in the night once one of those three finishes (it’s one of those same courts). Otherwise, one of 9 or 9Gem would be wrapping up relatively early. Depending on much earlier matches and if there’s any delays into the night.
I remember one of Nine’s first ever nights in 2019, Rebecca Maddern was hosting, coverage went until around 2am in the morning, a combination of court delays and very long matches.
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Good to hear the voice of John ‘JA’ Alexander (world feed - he is calling the Shapovalov match on an outside arena), Seven’s former main caller (including with Jim Courier after 2005) for 25 years until he went into federal politics after 2010.
Also, Tamsyn Manou (Seven’s athletics - track expert alongside Bruce McAvaney for a number of years now on Olympics and Comm Games) doing courtside interviews for Nine (or maybe TA world feed). Wonder if Nine have quietly tapped her on the shoulder for their future Olympics?
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From memory a men’s match in 2003 went till about 4am in the morning.
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Famously, in 2008, our Lleyton Hewitt v Marcos Baghdatis broke records, starting around midnight, going through the night to after 4:30am local time. Seven featured the match, naturally and stayed with it all night. So it was also a very late one for Matthew White, John Alexander and Jim Courier on-air.
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Weird, they’ve got Rafa Nadal (just starting now) on 9Gem!? Surely they’ll do a switcheroo ASAP.
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Nope, main channel came back from an ad break and Roz Kelly did do a cross to it but said “over on 9Gem”, they’re sticking with American young gun Tiafoe (also just commenced). And strange commentary but good to see the mix-up of usual mens/star lead Todd Woodbridge with Jelena Dokic.
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Got Tiafoe v Altmaier on partially, then switching to Baez v Kubler in about an hour, according to Roz Kelly.
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9 utilizing rugby league commentator Peter Psalitis as play by play for todays match from John Cain Arena alongside Jim Courier as analyst.
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Is channel Nine doing less promoting of Stan sport this year and trying to bump up numbers on 9 now? Haven’t heard Stan Sport mentioned that much.
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