The best sport on the telly? Sorry Mr Lineker, it's nothing to do with you

WHILE the Euro 2008 opening games have colonised the BBC and ITV schedules, causing havoc with Mark Austin's meal-times, another sport has been quietly occupying an earlier part of the BBC's day.

Normally, I'd simply skip by anything with the word "tennis" in it, but as the temperature creeped up during the afternoon in Menorca, dragging the TV out on to the balcony was the only way to go. With BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3 and Sky News to go at from the English channels, it doesn't take long to get bored with rolling news and day-time afternoon dramas.

So thank God for the Artois tennis tournament from Queen's. It doesn't have the wall-to-wall promotion of football, nor the tens of millions to lavish on its key participants, but there's a lot "soccer" - and those covering it for TV - can learn from it.

While Gary Lineker and co have been operating their rather smug closed-shop from the middle of Europe, Sue Barker, Andrew Castle and various former players have been presenting really watchable telly from courtside in this country.

What makes it so much better? Where to begin...

1. In every football match from Euro 2008 we are constantly treated to phrases such as "And that's a great goal by Fernando Torres of Liverpool." If we're interested in football, we'll watch it. We don't need to have every English connection thrown into our faces. In the tennis, it's very rare that the fact Andrew Murray is British is brought up, other than when he's described as the British number one. This may be because, as a moaning, miserable and rather aggressive interviewee, we don't particularly want to associate with him. But at the same time, we aren't given every British-related reference to Rafael Nadal (and there will be plenty.)

2. At the tennis, they let you join in. Take the semi final between Nadal and Andy Roddick today. During a break in play, they showed a short clip of Nadal from a previous game. Andrew Castle then explained a viewer had requested it because it "made her melt." All Nadal was doing was smiling at the crowd. Can you imagine Lineker and Alan Hanson giving up vital seconds of their in-joke packed analysis at half-time to respond to an audience request? Where's the interactivity with football? If you're watching, you want to be involved. Test Match Special gets the public involved to great effect, and the email address for the tennis is on screen nearly all the time. Admittedly, there's a reason for this - it's easy content when the heavens open, but it makes the coverage so much more enticing. Why can't football have snap text polls during a game, to pick say man of the match? Or do the over-paid, self-indulgent pundits (Mark Lawrenson being the exception here - he's very good at "keeping it real") fear the power of the public?

3. In the tennis, they keep the graphics simple. Either the ball was on the left hand side of the line or the right hand side. And therefore either in or out. Simple as that. In football, it's like a geek-off between ITV, Sky and BBC to see who can have the fanciest graphics. And therefore race to decide who will confuse the punters fastest.

4. In football, can you imagine a reporter collaring Wayne Rooney just as he went on the pitch for a cordial chat? And for Wayne Rooney to avoid the cliches? No, of course not. Yet, on Tuesday, Andrew Castle, stood outside the dressing room and when Nadal came out ahead of his first game, he stopped for a chat. Polite, friendly, insightful.

5. And finally, the pundits aren't just there in the tennis just because they used to play. They're actually good at the new job too. Castle, for example, has a rapport with the modern players. Greg Rusedski, as a co-commentator, also gets it just right when deciding when to talk, and when to keep quiet. And he makes sure his references to his career are suited to the moment - such as expressing the fear he'd felt when played Nadal ... in a warm up. Set that against Hanson and Lineker's continued oblique references to each others' careers, and it's advantage tennis. And none of the pundits and presenters on the tennis keep turning down jobs in the sport so they can continue working in the media. Unlike Alan Shearer, whose dull tones don't really lend themselves to telly, and the fact he finds the sofa too comfy to go back into the game rather sums everything that's wrong about football and TV's coverage of it.

I make that game, set and match to tennis. The Queen's Final is on BBC 1 tomorrow, and Wimbledon begins a week on Monday. I, for one, can't wait. And I never thought I'd write that about tennis.

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