They’re baaaack. CBS Sports brought back Tennis Channel personality Jan-Michael Gambill to provide live commentary during last weekend’s PPA n2Grate DC Open medal matches and paired him with another Tennis Channel talker, Brett Haber. The results were as cringe-inducing as the Tennis Channel’s programming two weeks ago, when Gambill and colleague Steve Weissman supplied a lifetime of the rudest, dumbest, most cringe-tastic remarks made during pro pickleball play we’ve seen.
If we had to pick just one moment that sums up the newest, fresh batch of steaming Tennis Channel commentary crap, we’d pick this one right here after Lucy Kovalova ripped a massive ATP against Leigh Waters. An ATP is an “around the post” trick shot that is exactly what it sounds like: a shot where the ball travels around the net post, instead of over the net, usually when the player diagonally across from the ATP-er has sent an angled ball too wide.
Watch as the Tennis Channel clowns call Lucy’s ATP an “Erne” (a completely different trick shot in which the ball is struck in the air as you are jumping across/around the kitchen or after you run around or through the kitchen and re-establish your feet out of bounds). One of the Tennis Channel clowns tries to cover for his error by claiming the shot was “a bit of both” an ATP and an Erne, then resumes babbling about how he didn’t mean to call Leigh Waters the worst player on the court.
Someone get this guy a cure for diarrhea of the mouth stat.
Well, you’ll hear no backtracking from us on our evidence-based opinion that the Tennis Channel continues to feature the most uninformed and incompetent pickleball commentators on the media playing field.
Bar none.
Here’s a clip of Michelle demonstrating what an Erne looks like:
Postscript: Ok, we can’t help but point you to another cringe-inducing moment. As we learned two weeks ago, Gambill loves to yammer about himself and his tennis days while name-dropping. While the ladies are putting on an incredible display of athleticism, Gambill prattles on about his Spokane tennis days and his favorite male tennis players in the 1990s.
I think I speak for many pickleball watchers when I ask:
