It’s great that the womens Semi Finals will be moved to nighttime,then I’ll be able to watch them live
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Australia’s Davis Cup Finals tie against Hungary will be shown live on 9Gem at 8pm AEDT tonight. It will be repeated on beIN Sport 1 tomorrow (Sunday) from 2pm AEDT.
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Exactly - the Pique Cup doesn’t deserve to call itself the Davis Cup at all. Such a shame to lose the tournament - a rare chance for many countries to see top talent play in their country and I think for Australia just as here in the UK a crucial event in developing new talent too.
Now it’s a meaningless event on the tour at the end of an already long season just weeks ahead of a newer, and frankly better, take on the idea.
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Glad that the Davis Cup is currently airing on 9Gem. Jelena Dokic is a nice commentator.
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I enjoyed her commentary in winter during Wimbledon.
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With Bec leaving Nine, who will take her spot in the hosting role for the AusOpen?
Eddie?
Would be nice if Nine could grab someone like Neroli Meadows for tennis and maybe even WWOS.
Otherwise throw in names like Alicia Loxley or Roz Kelly.
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I think Alicia Loxley would be excellent- a fairly familiar face nationally but especially in Melbourne. I think she’s been a great host of 9Gem’s coverage with excellent tennis knowledge (I believe she was actually an aspiring pro tennis player in her teens).
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If I remember correctly, his contract with Fox Footy prohibits him from fronting any of Nine’s WWOS coverage.
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She is freelance so would be able to be picked up (obviously presuming she hasn’t signed for Fox’s or any overseas cricket coverage this summer)
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Would Neroli be signed up to host the AO world feed coverage? Pretty sure she did that for this year’s event.
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Neroli was seen on the international broadcast for a few years
Indeed she did. This was the first year the world feed added on-screen presentation and extra content.
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Apparently the ATP Cup draw is 11am tomorrow Saturday Dec 4.
4 groups of 4(Jan 1-6), semis(Jan 7-8) and final(Jan 9), so no QFs, only the 4 group winners advance. Im surprised they arent waiting until after the Aus Open entry list is known on Monday Dec 6 because Novak coming or not impacts if Serbia qualify for ATP Cup. ATP Cup schedule due out Monday Dec 6.
I agree with comments above re Davis Cup, its a shadow of its former self.
I miss advantage final sets, which are quite rare now with Roland Garros mens and womens main draw singles the only pro event left that use them.
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Looks like the ATP Cup draw is postponed to Tuesday 7 December, 2pm
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Probably for the reason you mentioned. No qf stage might mean some dead ties at the end of the group stage.
Would that not interfere with her Nine News presenting though? And the Melbourne bulletins have naturally been high during the tennis. As Bec hosted main channel from early afternoon through to about 6:30pm.
As it was obvious, at least to me, they banished TJ to mornings after 2019 in favour of James Bracey for prime time (following the infamous Osaka gaffe) and Bracey has been a natural in the role too. So I doubt they’d want TJ in the higher-rating afternoon slot. Just my view though.
So would Nine not just go for another profile female who is already within the wwos brand (NRL, RU, netball)? So yes Roz Kelly, etc come to mind.
And I think we’re all assuming they’ll go for a female replacement for Bec, rather than a male (otherwise would also mean three main channel males with TJ and Bracey)?
But also, though highly unlikely, are TJ (particularly) and Bracey even guaranteed for 2022? Could be a time to re-fresh the coverage again, coming out of the pandemic and all, I know many here have been calling for a total brand and on-air refresh too, as this is Nine’s first major event leading straight into Q1 Married.
I mean Alicia would only miss two nights on the news right- only the middle weekend of the open, because the second weekend they don’t have much coverage during the day so TJ could always cover the arvo. If thats still a problem she could always switch with TJ and host mornings (even just on the days she has to read the news).
Afternoons may rate more than mornings but mornings are arguably still a bigger gig given it includes the pre-show- the host is seen a lot more than in the arvo when they’re basically just throwing between matches.
My read on TJ moving to mornings was that in 2019 he was only on in the evenings to try and boost the new Today show team’s profile and ratings. Could be wrong, but I do think that Bracey is much better and a fantastic host. I personally don’t think they need a huge host refresh, but if they did Bracey 100% deserves to keep his prime time host spot (imo there’s no one better to replace him).
The main refresh I’d like to see is 9 using their own graphics!!
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