Nadal vs Alcaraz: what’s happening in Las Vegas… | Tennis | Sports

“Nadal vs Alcaraz: the first ending that we didn’t write”, announces a gigantic canvas that Netflix has just installed in the Plaza de Pedro Zerolo, in the heart of the passage in the central district of Chueca. I guess there will be other similar ones in different parts of the capital and in different cities, maybe also in other countries, I don’t know. And that’s not the only advertisement for the event displayed in the area. The walls where major concerts are usually advertised were covered with posters promoting “the most anticipated sporting event”, a statement which I hope is not entirely true for the sake of sport in general and tennis especially. Also out of a simple question of hope, to continue to keep a certain faith in humanity intact.

Its creators call it the slam from Netflix, which is a bombastic way (juicy advertising, I admit, I suppose also effective) of referring to a simple exhibition match, which in turn is the opposite of high competition and he most resplendent spirit in professional sport. But Americans love these types of ultra-transformed shows, especially if they take place in Las Vegas and are sponsored by one of its big casinos, which always gives it enormous interest from a betting and gaming point of view. more or less organized chance. . In the media too: if in 2018 it was Turner Sports which offered a face-to-face pay-per-view between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson (it was called The gamebut soon known as Ten Million Dollar Tournament), it is now Netflix which has decided to internationalize and exploit one of the attractions offered by the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

I don’t know if this is a sad, pernicious or purely speculative trend in sports today, but it’s clear that it is a trend. More and more voices are being raised to demand a simplification of the product until only the pulp is left. “This is what the new generations are asking for,” they hide. And I’m not saying that it’s not true, just that the customer is not always right and that the public must be able to be informed. Events like this, or like the recent pastiche between Inter Miami and Al Nassr, that is to say between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, broadcast live on private television in our country, hardly contribute to entertainment sporadic of those who will eventually renege on the offer if its whims are not satisfied. And it is as dangerous as a pilgrim, whether we think of the public, a pet or a child.

The justifications for the future Football Super League also hold here: the public wants more matches – by default – between the continent’s big clubs and less meritocracy. Behind this, as in the duel between Nadal and Alcaraz which flooded my neighborhood with posters, is a purely economic interest. And legal too. Another thing is that it is appropriate, advisable or even plausible, as they try to make us believe thanks to the good use of advertising, which in these cases almost always wins or draws. Remember the ten million dollar tournament? In reality, Tiger and Mickelson only shared a haul of nine. And that’s part of what the big letters and gigantic posters are about: promises so vague that even what happens in Las Vegas no longer stays in Las Vegas.

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