Mardy Fish led an army of bitter Twitterers on Sunday after CBS cut away from the finals of the Miami Sony Ericsson Open match by David Ferrer and Andy Murray.
 

Viewers were told to watch the tie-break conclusion of Murray's win on the Tennis Channel, which obviously not everyone has, so CBS could show the South regional final between Michigan and Florida.

@MardyFish pulled no punches with "Shame on CBS" Tweeted within seconds of CBS' decision. Fish added "Your[sic] telling me they couldn't have shown that?" six minutes later at the conclusion of Murray's win. 

Fish and others were perturbed that CBS showed several minutes of commercials - a contractual obligation - before jumping to the tip-off of the basketball game.

Fish got support from WTA legend Chris Evert, who retweeted his second message, adding "agree ... Really CBS???"

The hashtag #heidi became a popular trend as the fallout continued, referencing an NFL game in 1968 when NBC cut away from the closing moments of a game to show the children's movie "Heidi." at 7 p.m. The Oakland Raiders, down 32-29 when the game was cut away from, rallied to win 43-32, causing the network serious embarrassment.

While I enjoy watching great tennis on TV, Fish and Evert both need to wake up and smell the dollar signs. March Madness is an overwhelmingly popular sport, second in CBS' arsenal only to the NFL, and the Michigan-Florida matchup pits two huge fan bases against one another with a trip to next weekend's Final Four on the line.
 

The move wasn't anti-tennis, it was pro-honoring our contracts and pro-larger target audience. 
 

If tennis was the most popular sport in America, would Fish and Evert have been up in arms that the closing moments of a championship basketball game were cut away from to show the opening set of the Miami quarterfinals? If not, then they only care about their sport, not the actual ethical decision. 

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