Grand Slam Professional Tennis Predictions and Picks by Nick Bollettieri. US Open, French Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open

In a recent article from SI.com, my friend Justin Gimelstob argued that state of tennis was on the upswing in terms of attendance, media coverage, and participation. While I do agree that internationally, tennis may be getting bigger than ever, the same can’t be said for America. While the sport continues to grow here, in terms of sheer numbers, the media (and general populous) don’t share those same sentiments.

The biggest example of this is the fact that ESPN dropped its coverage of Indian Wells and the Sony Ericsson Open. I know that FSN picked up Indian Wells, but it isn’t the same. ESPN draws the numbers and coverage that FSN simply cannot compete with. If you weren’t a religious tennis follower or involved in the tennis industry, I doubt you even knew that Indian Wells was even on FSN. This is a shame, because it is a great tournament where a majority of the world’s best players were competing. Jon Wertheim makes note of this too in his Ad-In, Ad-Out column where he begs for ESPN to come back. I couldn’t agree with you more Jon!