The 2025 Australian Open is up and running and we’ve witnessed quite a few breathtaking matches already in these two days. On Day 2, the American tennis stars were on song! On the women’s side, we saw Gauff, Collins, Pegula, and Dolehide securing their spot in the next round. While on the men’s side, the 19-year-old, Basavareddy looked quite impressive during his match against Djokovic. Even Korda, Tiafoe, and Paul won their matches on Day 2! However, the biggest surprise of the day was Alex Michelsen’s win over Stefanos Tsitsipas. Amid these wonderful moments, some of the fans raised a few complaints about ESPN’s poor coverage of this mega event.

They were not pleased with their streaming services. Some of the fans complained that they were unable to watch Tommy Paul’s thrilling five-set win over Australia’s Christopher O’Connell. Both the players played exceptionally well in this match, but it was Paul who sealed the deal at 6-2,3-6,6-1,6(5)-7,7-5. This was Tommy Paul’s third meeting with the Aussie and he really had put in some hard yards in front of the Australian crowd to take a 3-0 lead in their H2H record.

According to ESPN’s commitments to their fans in North America, they claimed coverage across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+ will include matches from all 15 courts, with every match streaming live on ESPN+. ESPN has the likes of tennis John McEnroe, Rennae Stubbs, Chris McKendry, and a few others to do the commentary for the 2025 Australian Open. However, despite all these valiant efforts to offer good coverage of the first Grand Slam of the 2025 season, it seems ESPN has yet again failed to win the hearts of its fans.

ESPN’s coverage of Grand Slam tennis has been the talk of the town for quite a while. Now, fans have yet again come out in numbers seeking an explanation for why they were unable to see Tommy Paul’s match against O’Connell.

Tennis fans yet again take a jibe at ESPN for their poor Australian Open coverage

However, this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a coverage issue with ESPN during the Australian Open. Even in 2022, tennis fans lashed out at ESPN when they couldn’t locate Taylor Fritz’s R64 match against Frances Tiafoe. They were quite disappointed after being unable to watch two of the top American men’s players take on each other in such a mega event. Reacting to the recent poor coverage at the 2025 AO, a fan wrote, “@espn Horrible! How can ESPN not show the Tommy Paul match? WTH. @USTennis.“

During the 2022 Australian Open, another controversial incident took place when the sports network showed the wrong Chinese player in a promo for the match between Aryna Sabalenka and Wang Xinyu. Commenting on their inappropriate coverage of Tommy Paul’s match, another fan tweeted, “@ESPNPlusHelp what is the reason we are unable to stream Tommy Paul’s match?“

Even during the 2023 Australian Open, ESPN received a lot of criticism for its unwillingness to bring the tournament to all the fans in the US. Ajla Tomljanović and former American tennis player, Jesse Levine were among those tennis lovers who expressed their dissatisfaction over the same. Tomljanovic had tweeted, “How is there no coverage of this match in the States.“ Levine also shared a tweet saying, “How is tennis not on tv in the states right now? Yes, espn + I get it, but one of the biggest tournaments in the world and can’t even watch!!” 

After seeing Tommy Paul’s match disappearing on ESPN+, another fan tweeted, “It was.. And then it disappeared after the 4th set.. Idk why they took it off air.. The Osaka vs Garcia is on ESPN2 as was the Tommy Paul match.. What’s wrong with ESPN????“

During the 2023 Australian Open, renowned journalist Matt Zemek also stressed that Sebastian Korda’s win over Daniil Medvedev was a huge moment for American tennis but ESPN chose to ignore it. He said that instead of telecasting that match, they did coverage of the NFL, hockey, and basketball! 

According to a poster released by ESPN for the 2025 Australian Open, they say, “Catch every match featuring the world’s best players in the first major of 2025.” A fan highlighted this part in a tweet and wrote, “@ESPNPlus claiming “every point from every match” at the @AustralianOpen yet Tommy Paul in a 5th set is not available? Make it make sense @espn #AO2025.”

Not only during the Australian Open but even during the US Open, fans had similar experiences in the past. In 2023, fans experienced a blackout during the US Open, forcing them to miss the second-round match of Carlos Alcaraz. Even in 2024, there was an uproar surrounding the broadcast of matches getting affected including those of the rising stars like Emma Navarro and Taylor Fritz. What really happened at that time?

After missing out on the chance to see Tommy Paul’s incredible performance in the fifth set, a fan tweeted, “@ESPNPlusHelp @ESPNFANSUPPORT @espn WHERE IS TOMMY PAUL????” Not only this, previously we have seen ESPN commentators facing some backlash from the fans for their bizarre commentary. Tommy Paul will next face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the second round. Now after all these controversies, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in that, match!