Channel 7 Chose to Cover World #43 Nick Kyrgios Over Women's #1 Ash Barty at Wimbledon Last Night

Bring back Barty.

Here’s the easiest question you’ll get today: Who would you rather watch play tennis? Aussie hero and new women's #1 Ash Barty, or the guy ranked 43 whose performance is hampered by him staying up too late playing FIFA?

Well, last night Channel 7 made the choice for you, neglecting to cover the majority of Barty’s Wimbledon opener against China's Zheng Saisai, sticking instead with the earlier match-up between Aussies Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson.

See, Kyrgios’ match began two hours before Barty's. However, when it became apparent that the Kyrgios-Thompson show would run long, Channel 7 declined to switch their coverage over to Barty. They eventually moved over to catch her victory once Kyrgios dispatched Thompson in five sets, but viewers who had tuned in to see her play from the start were already expressing their anger online.

Channel 7 sport reporter Mark Beretta attempted to explain the coverage on Sunrise this morning.

"People have been watching [Kyrgios] for two hours and at the climax of the match you’re gonna say, 'We’re going to Ash now'? That’s the difficult decision."

"The nature of our arrangement with Wimbledon is we can only show one match on one channel at any one time," he added.

Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage then apologised on behalf of Seven, even though Beretta could not confirm that every future Barty match at Wimbledon would come to audiences live.

And yes, there were even more thoughts about that too…

After the match, Barty addressed the lack of coverage diplomatically.

"If people can watch my matches, great. If they can't, they can't. That's up to the broadcasters, not me," Barty said.

Kyrgios, meanwhile, offered this: "I thought they would probably show both, but I don't really have much to say about that."

Header Image: Twitter (@rodlaver)