By Richard Pagliaro

(September 7, 2010) While the last American man standing battled Stanislas Wawrinka in today's US Open fourth round, a primary American player sat across from U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe planning the plot line of this US Open. You may have never heard Jamie Reynolds' name, but if you've been watching the US Open you've witnessed his work.

Reynolds, ESPN vice president of event production, is the man behind the curtain in planning how the Grand Slam network brings the Open to your television.

There was a time when tuning in to ESPN's Grand Slam coverage could make tennis fans feel about as comfortable as the prospect of kick boxing a Kangaroo for 15 rounds while wearing ankle weights beneath the sweltering sun in Melbourne.

That was when ESPN's puzzling policy of presenting major matches on tape delay  created sleepless nights in many tennis fans forced to follow the bouncing ball on Internet screens as they tuned out of television coverage and turned on PC's to visit the official tournament web sites.

Times have changed and in recent years whether the network is televising majors in  Melbourne, Paris, London or New York it has tried to place a premium on presenting the bouncing ball live across multiple platforms on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.

While analyst Patrick McEnroe worked on his lap top in the back of the network's immense trailer that stands in the shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium and serves as the lounge for the on-air talent and staff, Reynolds sat down with Tennis Now for this interview, which is the first in a two-part series presenting a behind-the-scene tour of how ESPN covers the Flushing Meadows major.

The tennis court may appear to be a blue rectangle to viewers at home, but Reynolds views it as "a four dimensional chess board" and in this interview he explains how and why ESPN makes its moves.

Tennis Now: What's the biggest challenge for ESPN in covering the Open?

Jamie Reynolds: We spoke a little bit about it last year. This is a four-dimensional chess board. You've got the USTA, you've got CBS, you've got ESPN and you've got Tennis Channel. So you've got four teams that have similar agendas striving to do the best they can with the event but you've got event partner with the USTA and three network partners all trying to figure out how they can do the best they can with the assets available. So you figure out the programming schedule. There are a finite number of resources out here with five television courts so how do you help CBS, ESPN, Tennis Channel get the most out if it and that's access to the the athletes and covering the event. Figuring out those nuances and sharing the all those resources, but then making your own brand — whether it's CBS, ESPN or Tennis Channel — look unique and sound differently and give them an identity that's probably the biggest challenge.

Tennis Now: Talking to you in Melbourne during the Australian Open you told me Tennis Australia is receptive to ESPN's request for match schedule time. Is the USTA also responsive and does CBS get top priority because they're network and presumably pay quite a bit for rights fees or do you as ESPN televising the most hours of the Open get priority?

Jamie Reynolds: Good question. CBS, because of their unique windows, in the middle weekend and the finals, they've already got the best opportunities from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The more difficult strategy is trying to figure out how the day plays out between ESPN and the Tennis Channel with matches starting at 11 a.m. and we come on at 1 o'clock. So what's the first match of the day and what's the second match of the day? Because the USTA wants to do right by Tennis Channel but also have something left in the bank for the 1 o'clock start for ESPN. So we try to be very smart about how we set up for the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock start and then how do we co-exist during the rest of the day.

Tennis Now: Last night, you had John and Patrick together in the booth. How do you decide the broadcast teams. Obviously, you can't over work the analysts but do you have to be sensitive to the matches they prefer or do you just say "This is team..." and they sort of follow orders or do they lobby for matches they want to work?

Jamie Reynolds: It's funny you ask that. Fortunately, we've all worked together for so long that they don't lobby for matches. It's also a question of how do we best take advantage of John's talents because this is the only major he works for ESPN. So the opportunity to put the McEnroe brothers together is special because that's something you can't do in Australia, Paris or Wimbledon. So that's good. At the end of the day, we still have to serve the rest of the country and keep the rest of the country involved. We try to be strategic in how we roll them out. Is it four nights a week or is it three nights a week? There's some wisdom and logic of mixing it up and changing the flavor and some nights putting John and Chris Fowler together. You get a different take on the match so it keeps it fresh. You allow everyone to do a Federer match or a Nadal match so that the story telling gets a little bit different. If it is the the same team every time you run the risk of it becoming stale.

Tennis Now: Is your relationship with CBS better than it is with NBC? Not implying you have a bad relationship with NBC, but viewers get pissed off when we get to Wimbledon and you've been providing live coverage and NBC goes to tape delay in later rounds. Is there a difference between ESPN working with CBS here and working with NBC at Roland Garros and Wimbledon?

Jamie Reynolds: There's a significant difference and the difference is at Wimbledon and the French we co-exist. Meaning NBC bought a product, ESPN bought a product and we have off-setting hours — there is no interactivity. CBS is the host broadcaster and the domestic broadcast partner they provide all the services here so we share a lot of resources. The dynamic is one of we're televising the same event but we, ESPN, have to rely on their technical infrastructure to get it done. So how do we share the technical resources, the operation staff and some of the talent to get it done so it works for everyone? We're a lot tighter in that respect. On site, we sub-let access to facilities to Tennis Channel. So when you look at the decision tree: it's CBS world feed domestic broadcaster and we have all access to facilities we have and then we rent out the technical facilities to Tennis Channel to help support them.



Tennis Now: How have the numbers been this week. Are you happy with the ratings through the Open so far?

Dave Nagle (ESPN spokesman): The only ratings we have is through the first three days so far we're up 1 percent but that's all I've got so far.

Jamie Reynolds: It's easy to try to look at the Roddick and Venus and Serena factor and that's easier story telling for us. The reality is guys like Federer and Nadal and Kim Clijsters on the women's side there's enough traction and appreciation for their game that skill set is respected by tennis fans. These are once in a lifetime players. There's so many good stories
like Nadal trying to get the career Grand Slam. Wozniacki is the sunshine girl so there are good stories and good personalities and they're great players. It's easy to fall back on "where's the American game?" But tennis is an international game and tennis purists understand that.

Tennis Now: We've seen Spider cam up close and watched ESPN use it at the start and the conclusion of matches. How do you want to use that going forward and are there any other cool technological tools in the pipeline you hope to use?

Jamie Reynolds: Exploiting Spider Cam is a primary aim.

Tennis Now: Looked like it almost hit Federer in the head last night. Not that close but got very close to him John McEnroe pointed that out.

Jamie Reynolds: There are sensors on there so it can't possibly hit a player. So if it actually looks like it will hit somebody the sensors will kick in and that won't happen. Our goal is to get it in house this year and get the footprint so to speak and then try to use that going forward. It's only been used in Doha and Madrid thus far. From that perspective, it turned out to be a great asset because the referees know the flight patter and they know the driver so they feel comfortable with it. We know from the players' standpoint it's not a distraction and for those who do see it have seen it before. So when you have that comfort zone now we can figure
how to migrate and it use it more and more in the match.  We don't want to do anything in the line of player sight but we want to do something along the line. It gives tennis more of a cinematic feel. That high geometric position everything has been covered since the start of the Open Era so now we're trying to give you more of that atmospheric viewing experience. It's great for the introduction, hand shakes and walk offs to give you that sense of perspective.

Tennis Now: How about using it when a player debates the chair umpire? You could give the viewer the sense of how it feels to be in the chair debating a player?

Jamie Reynolds: We haven't declared it but there are plenty of robotics on the chair. The microphone is already down on the court so it won't give us anything we don't already have there.

Tennis Now: How about the microphones you have in the player box this year. How has
that worked?

Jamie Reynolds: The best example was Venus' match earlier this week. Her mom and her box was very animated. So what we're trying to do with the box mics is to be able to convey the enthusiasm or the disappointment to sort of run with the ambiance in the box of the moment. What is the coach, the friends and family are feeling and saying? Has it been good? Yeah, it's been okay but what you've got to remember is how many Americans are actually still in the singles field? So when you have that many international players...

Tennis Now: Like Wozniacki's dad is always speaking in Polish...

Jamie Reynolds: Precisely. So then you've got to get a Polish translator, a Serbian translator, a Spanish translator, a French translator.

Tennis Now: Querrey was asked if he felt he should have been placed on Ashe at night just to get the experience of it. He wasn't really complaining but do you have any feelings about that?

Jamie Reynolds: Here's the ratio that no one is picking up on. When you play the French Open, for instance, they play two men's matches (in that window on stadium court) whereas the US Open only plays one men's match. That's it. So look at the ratio of having two men's matches at other majors vs. one men's (night) match (on Ashe) here. So look at that ratio. You've only got nine windows to play with.

Tennis Now: What is your favorite court to shoot here? What is the best TV court at the Open?

Jamie Reynolds: Not unlike what Court 18 became for us at Wimbledon, I think probably the Grandstand Court still tends to have these moments and epic five-setters. It was Taylor Dent last year and Ryan Harrison this year. The Grandstand seems to be the court where anything can happen. Very intimate, the fans are part of the drama. Hearing New York fans here chant "Ryan Harrison" the same way they do for the Rangers is pretty amazing and creates this whole intimate session that makes it truly a memorable experience.

Tennis Now: Has anything that has happened so far taken you by surprise?

Jamie Reynolds: The fact on Friday night Serena came in and we had her on the set with Mike Tirico and she came on and interviewed Venus and that was great moment. We made the invitation to come and join us and have you on the set. To her credit, Serena said "Hey, I'm up for anything." We asked "Why don't you come to the booth and do a match?" She said "I don't want to do Venus' match because I get too nervous, but I love Rafa and I would love to do Rafa's match." To have Johnny Mac, Patrick and Serena together in the booth turned into a successful evening. That was a good night.

Tennis Now: Were you surprised how Serena handled herself in the booth? I like her a lot but honestly she can be pretty lame in her own press conference, but I thought she was very engaging and analytical in the booth. Were you surprised by that?

Jamie Reynolds: She handled it very well. She was in the comfort zone. She was actually taking notes from Rafa during the match. When you have players up there, what makes players good as analysts? They take the intangible and make it tangible. You know what's special as a fan but you can't always articulate it and that's why McEnroe and Darren Cahill and so many of the analysts are so good because they can articulate it.