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Channel 7 has defended its decision to stick with Nick Kyrgios's match against Jordan Thompson rather than show the start of world number one Ash Barty's Wimbledon opener.
The battle between the Australian men had been going for two hours when Barty's match against Zheng Saisai began on another court, and the broadcaster opted to show the final stages of Kyrgios's win rather than switch over.
A furious reaction from fans and pundits on social media prompted an explanation from Channel 7 on the Sunrise program.
Later on Wednesday morning, Channel 7 released a statement, calling the Barty match "one-sided".
"Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson were tied in the third set of a thrilling contest when Ash walked onto court," the Channel 7 spokesperson said.
"We screened as much of Ash's one-sided game as we could and enabled Foxtel to broadcast it in full.
"The massive audience ratings on 7TWO, which were comparable to a Wimbledon final, show how engaged Aussies were in the epic five-setter between Kyrgios and Thompson."
The network's chief executive, Tim Worner, said the decision to prioritise the Kyrgios-Thompson match was made on the run as the day's play unfolded.
"That decision had nothing to do whether it was a women's match, or a men's match, a doubles match or a mixed doubles match," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"You've got to consider those hundreds of thousands of Australians who voted with their remotes last night.
"Those numbers tell the story. Social media often is not reflected in the ratings."
If a scheduling clash of similar stature occurred later in the tournament, Worner said Seven would consider running Barty's matches in full and shifting the other contest to Foxtel.
"I think Ash Barty has the potential to pull huge audiences over the next two weeks," he said.
Both Kyrgios and Barty expressed bemusement at the decision, but said it had nothing to do with them.
"If people can watch my matches, great. If they can't, they can't. That's up to the broadcasters, not me," Barty said.
Kyrgios praised the French Open champion as "special".
"I don't have much to do with that but obviously Ash, what she's doing on the tennis court now is pretty special," he said.
"I thought they would probably show both, but I don't really have much to say about that."
Channel 7 sport reporter Mark Beretta explained the decision on the Sunrise program.
"Nick Kyrgios's match began at 11:00pm. So 1:00am is when Ash's match starts, but Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson are slugging it out over five sets, they run long," he said.
"So people have been watching for two hours and at the climax of the match you're going to say, 'we're going to Ash now'?
"That's the difficult decision. So we showed the best of Ash that was happening, and we flipped between the two matches, until Nick was done, and that's how it unfolded.
"And the nature of our arrangement with Wimbledon is that we can only show one match at any one time, so it was not an option to put it on two channels."
News Corp journalist Rob Greenwood called the decision "bizarre" while Scott Pryde of The Roar Sports said it was a "joke".
Number 43 seed Kyrgios beat Thompson 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-6 (12-10), 0-6, 6-1 while Barty won 6-4, 6-2 in just over an hour.
Topics: tennis, sport, television-broadcasting, broadcasting, information-and-communication, england, australia
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