If you were to predict who would do an out of the ordinary interview first, who else to guess than ESPN?
Colleen Vandeweghe granted ESPN network an interview in the middle of her first-rounder at the U.S. Open.
That is the first time in Tennis history that an interview has been conducted during a match.
According to Forthewin,
An ESPN spokesman told FTW that this was a joint ESPN/USTA initiative. Both parties wanted to bring new wrinkles to its coverage and agreed that interviewing players mid-match would be an innovation to benefit fans. The decision is made before the match and a player can back out up until the beginning of the interview.
CoCo was interviewed for 35-seconds by Pam Shriver in between sets of her first-round match against Sloane Stephens.
Vandeweghe was open to the interview and spoke about her aggressiveness, the need to come out strong in the second set, and to win her opening service game.
After winning, Coco explained why she did the interview,
Vandeweghe explained why she agreed to the interview after the match. “In general, I’m a sports fan,” she told Pam Shriver. “For anyone to have an insight into an athlete’s mind is a positive. I’m glad ESPN was open to the idea.”
Even though some may say she should have been focusing on the game, I’m sure the 35 second interview wasn’t much of a distraction, and the interview could have hyped her up and contributed to her win.
Maybe ESPN and/or another network will start doing more interviews mid game.
