566 The U S Open Tennis Championships

First  viewed  :  Uncertain

We  didn't  usually  watch  much  tennis  outside  of  Wimbledon  but  in  the  early  eighties , BBC  Two  screened  the  two  US  Open  Finals  and  one  Sunday  evening  we  watched  the  Mens'  game . The  only   problem  is  I  can't  remember  which  year  it  was.  Both  the  1982   and  1983  games  featured  the  same  two  protagonists , Jimmy  Connors  and  Ivan  Lendl,  and  had  pretty  much  the  same  result, a  four  set  win  for  Connors.*

The  incident  I  recall  wasn't  part  of  the  actual  match. During  one  of  the  breaks, the  camera  panned  out  of  the  stadium  to  a  glorious  late  afternoon  view  of  the  Manhattan  skyline  and  either  Dan  Maskell  or  John  Barrett   intoned  "This  is  the  New  York  skyline  and  that  is  the  sun !"   They  duly  received  the  Golden  Egg  Award  on  the  following  week's   The  Late,Late  Breakfast  Show  for  services  to  the  art  of  stating  the  bloody  obvious, Noel  Edmunds  having  a  good  chortle  at  the  clip.

These  days  Sky  have  exclusive  rights  to  the  tournament.

* The  1983  triumph  was  his  last  Grand  Slam  win.