I can understand why the USA Network doesn't have a feedback form or a contact email address: With the kind of coverage it has presented for the U.S. Open, there would probably be a deluge of complaint mail dumped on network executives.

The quality of broadcast tennis commentary has probably never been as low as it has been during the past week. Tracy Austin, despite her considerable insight into the game, can't stop chattering about inane things. Ted Robinson can't stop chattering about Tracy, and Al Trautwig can't stop mangling people's names ("Maria Shaparova" and "Maria Navratilova" are examples).

The "features" are embarrassingly lame, and hit an all-time low when Trautwig lay down on the ground with Sharapova (who has mercifully been eliminated from the tournament by two veteran players, so we won't have to hear about her 24 hours a day) while she read Marco Polo.

But the most irritating of all is the sexism of Jim Courier. His is the kind of sexism that goes under the radar these days--unless you are a woman or a man with a brain and some awareness. After Elena Bovina won her second-round match, Courier was shocked by her "aggression." "She pumped her fist!" he reported, as though this were some type of female breakthrough, then went on to say that she played an aggressive game. Note to Courier: That is how people--of both genders--win matches.

Then--when Vera Zvonareva had her on-court meltdown--there was Courier to tell us that "only in the women's game does this happen in mid-match." Courier must have been taking a very long bathroom break during Nicolas Massu's match with Sargis Sargsian; Massu began cursing and throwing his racket in the first set. And perhaps he has forgotten John McEnroe, whose constant on-court antics were so reprehensible that some called for him to be removed from the tour. McEnroe broke rackets, cursed at umpires, and once hit a ball that he was obviuosly aiming at a lineswoman who had dared to question one of his requests. Or how about Ilie Nastase? Does anyone recall his waiting until the fifth set to go ballastic?

Ironically, it is McEnroe--who once said that women's tennis was inferior to men's--who is now not only a champion of equality for female players, but also a breath of fresh air among USA's commentators.