No sport makes TV planning trickier than tennis. One match wraps up in an hour; the next drags on for five. Play often begins well after the listed time, or takes place on the far side of the world while you should be sleeping. Hang in there anyway: a single saved match point can turn an average weeknight into a memory that sticks.
You don’t even need a passport for top-level tennis. Each summer, the National Bank Open draws the leading men and women to Montreal and Toronto, smack in the middle of the hard-court run-up to the US Open. This guide shows you how to estimate start times more accurately, how to record a match without losing the ending and how to tune your TV so the ball stays visible. It works for a calm Roland Garros morning as well as for an all-nighter with the Australian Open.
The four Grand Slams: dates and viewing hours
Four big events anchor the tennis calendar. They come back in about the same weeks each year, but the precise dates and daily schedules change, so rely on each tournament’s official site for those. The table focuses on the time gap with Eastern Time in Toronto and Montreal; in Vancouver, subtract three more hours. That gap is what decides whether you’ll need an alarm in the dead of night.
| Tournament | City and surface | Typical period | Gap with Eastern Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | Melbourne, hard court | January | Roughly 16 hours ahead |
| Roland Garros | Paris, clay | Late May into early June | 6 hours ahead |
| Wimbledon | London, grass | End of June to mid-July | 5 hours ahead |
| US Open | New York, hard court | End of August into September | No difference |
In real life, Melbourne’s day session reaches you in the evening, technically the day before, while its night session fills the early hours. Paris and London serve up tennis with breakfast: the first balls are struck while you’re asleep or brewing coffee, and play generally ends by late afternoon. New York runs on your own clock, yet its night matches can easily stretch past midnight.
Which channel airs tennis varies by event and by season. Tivi Mate IPTV bundles sports, live TV, movies and series in a single subscription; the IPTV sports page tells you which sports and sports channels are part of it. Schedules shift regularly, which is why we never make promises about any given tournament.
A summer stop in Montreal and Toronto
Canadian tennis fans mark the National Bank Open on their calendars every year. Played on outdoor hard courts from late July into early August, the National Bank Open alternates its men’s and women’s draws between Montreal and Toronto from one year to the next. It’s a chance to watch the world’s best close to home, a few weeks ahead of the US Open. For the tournament’s long history, see the Wikipedia page on the Canadian Open.
Home-grown talent adds to the appeal, with names like Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu. Then there are the team events: the Davis Cup on the men’s side and the Billie Jean King Cup on the women’s side. Canada sends a squad to both every year, and it took the Davis Cup in 2022 and the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023.
Watching from home? Remember that the National Bank Open is an outdoor event, so a summer storm can stop play for an hour or longer. In Melbourne’s main stadiums and on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, a retractable roof keeps matches going. Even with a roof, though, published times are only estimates, since the length of the earlier matches sets the start of the next one.
Tennis scoring in a nutshell
The scoring system seems strange at first, but a few matches in, it all makes sense:
- Points in a game run 15, 30, 40 and then game. At 40-40, called deuce, a player must win two straight points to take the game.
- A set goes to whoever wins six games with a margin of at least two; at 6-6, a tiebreak decides it.
- Most matches are best of three sets. Men’s singles at the Grand Slams is the exception, played over five.
- When the final set at a Grand Slam reaches 6-6, a first-to-ten tiebreak settles it.
The upshot: one match lasts ninety minutes, another goes past four hours. No TV guide can predict that, and it’s precisely why tennis on TV keeps you guessing.
When will your match actually begin?
Each evening during a tournament, organizers release the next day’s order of play. Only the opening match on every court is given a set time; the rest are listed as “followed by” or “not before” a certain hour. When earlier matches drag on, yours gets pushed back.
The TV guide generally shows a single long block with only the tournament’s name, so it won’t tell you which match is live. Follow these steps and your favourite player won’t slip past you:
- The night before, read the official order of play and note your match’s court and its position in the day’s lineup.
- Find the correct channel and slot in the TV guide, and set the reminder for the start of the session, not for the match’s estimated start.
- Throughout the day, keep an eye on the scores of the earlier matches on that court, so you can tell roughly when yours will come up.
- Switch on the TV as the match before yours nears its end. With a set to spare, you’ll see the warm-up and the opening game.
Our article on the TV guide (EPG), favourites and reminders shows how to find a program, set a reminder and fix a guide that stays blank.
Recording without losing the finish
Recording is close to essential for tennis fans, provided you set it up right. Depending on your app and box, you’ll use a built-in recorder, a USB stick or the catch-up some channels provide; not every option exists everywhere. The principle is that of a PVR, or digital video recorder: pick a time slot and the device stores the stream.
- Does your app support restarting a program from the top? For a match already in progress, that’s often the fastest solution.
- Build in generous extra time at the end, a minimum of one hour for a best-of-five.
- Check your free storage. A standard HD stream takes roughly 2 GB per hour, so four hours of tennis can top 8 GB.
- Planning to watch later? Avoid social media and mute score notifications. A single look at the result and the wait was for nothing.
Keeping an eye on more than one court
In the early rounds of a Grand Slam, matches run on more than a dozen courts at once. The broadcaster picks what you see and sometimes hops between courts. To follow two matches yourself, use an extra screen beside the TV or a set in another room.
In both cases, each stream counts as a separate screen and takes its own share of bandwidth. Our guide to IPTV on multiple TVs at home explains how to divide your internet speed. To locate the sports channels fast and pin them as favourites, check the channel list.
A setup that works nicely: the main match on the big TV and the second one on your tablet with the sound off. Listening to two commentary teams at once wears you out, and soon you’re not really following either match.
Tennis on TV: keeping the ball crisp on screen
A tennis ball is tiny, travels at incredible speed and usually crosses one uniform colour: reddish clay, green grass or a blue hard court. These three settings matter most.
- Motion smoothing (frame interpolation) can leave a trail behind the ball or even conjure up a second “ghost ball”. Use a low setting, or disable it entirely if it annoys you.
- Aspect ratio: check that your TV isn’t zooming into the image, which can crop the baselines and the on-screen score. Look for a menu option along the lines of “Fit to screen”.
- Sharpness: set too high, it outlines the court lines and the players with a visible halo. Bring it back to the middle of the scale.
When a match is broadcast in 4K, the clay’s texture shows more clearly and the lines look cleaner. Our IPTV 4K page sets out the requirements: a TV and box that handle HEVC, a suitable HDMI cable and sufficient internet speed. Choose a stable connection too, preferably wired, so quality doesn’t dip in the middle of a long rally. Unsure whether your line can cope? Read our piece on IPTV over fibre internet.
Five sets past midnight
When a marathon match stretches to 2 a.m., practical questions suddenly pop up, particularly in a condo or apartment where crowd noise seeps through the walls.
- Headphones let you watch without waking your household or the neighbours. Bluetooth models can trail the picture slightly; if so, use a wired pair or tweak the audio delay in the settings.
- Night mode (dynamic range compression) on the TV or soundbar narrows the gap between loud and quiet sounds, so applause won’t wake anyone and the commentary remains clear.
- Late at night, dial back the screen brightness a bit. Your eyes will be grateful by the deciding set.
Prefer to get to bed on time? Record the match. Watched the next day without knowing the outcome, it feels nearly as tense as live, provided your phone goes on silent before you turn in.
FAQ: tennis on TV
Why does my match start later than scheduled?
Only each court’s first match has a fixed start. The timing of the rest depends on how long the preceding matches take. The official order of play plus the live score on that court give you the best estimate.
How can I tell which channel is airing a tournament?
As the event gets closer, look in the TV guide and the channel list. Availability changes with each competition and season, so we never guarantee ahead of time that a tournament will be shown.
Does the stream delay matter for tennis?
Less than in hockey, since play pauses after each point. It only becomes a nuisance if you’re also following a score app on your phone, which can show a point before your TV does.
What internet speed does 4K tennis require?
Plan on roughly 25 Mbps per 4K stream, and it needs to be stable; HD requires far less. Total the speed for all screens running at once and keep some margin. Our guide to the right internet speed walks you through the calculation.
Can I follow two matches simultaneously?
Yes, provided your subscription allows multiple screens at the same time and your connection is up to it. Ahead of a major tournament, take a moment to check how many screens can stream at the same time.
Twelve months of tennis with Tivi Mate IPTV
Following tennis without the stress boils down to a few habits: know each Grand Slam’s time gap, read the order of play, set reminders at the right moment and record with ample margin. Fine-tune your picture as well, and find an audio setup that suits late nights. That way no match point gets away from you, whether the ball is in play in Montreal, in Toronto or in Melbourne, thousands of kilometres away.
