It was a day-long drama of career defining moments at Roland Garros, but you wouldn’t know that if you turned on your television. While Roger Federer was fighting off Juan Martin del Potro in a five-set duel, tennis fans were treated to an entirely different kind of drama: a Days Of Our Lives episode.

Once again, network television reduces an enthralling Grand Slam duel to soap-opera subplot status. Only in tennis can the crushed red brick court be upstaged by the sands through the hour glass.

NBC, which owns the rights to the Roland Garros semifinals, opted to air the Robin Soderling-Fernando Gonzalez semifinal in its entirety starting at 10 a.m. Eastern time rather than joining that match as it hurtled toward a compelling climax that saw Soderling storm back from a 1-4, 15-30 deficit in the decisive set to reach his first major final.

Why would NBC, which resorted to the same stale tape-delay tactics on Sunday when Soderling was shocking the tennis world in scoring an astounding upset over four-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, opt to reduce an exciting live major match to re-run status?

An NBC spokesman told Tennis Week today that the network was contractually prevented from picking up the Federer-Del Potro match live because by the time the day’s second semifinal started after 11 a.m. Eastern time, the network was already committed to televising Soderling vs. Gonzalez. 

“We had to pick a match and we don’t set the schedule, the French Tennis Federation does,” the spokesman told Tennis Week. “Our window for today’s semifinals is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in all time zones. The first match, generally, is the one we show on Friday it just happened the Federer match was the second semifinal, which would not fit into that 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. window.”

If the timing of the Federer-Del Potro match prevented NBC from squeezing it into its three-hour television window then could the network have picked up the end of the first semifinal live when it came on the air at 10 a.m. and at least shown the final sets of Soderling-Gonzalez live?

“No, because that would be a complicated production element,” the spokesman said. “We’re already producing one show and so we could not do both. Contractually, we were already committed to the match. I know it’s not the greatest (system) and I know it’s disappointing to tennis fans, but we’re not the biggest priority (for the French Tennis Federation).”

ESPN and Tennis Channel have established a cooperative partnership that has been largely successful at Grand Slams in the past. NBC executives spoke with Tennis Channel execs this morning to discuss the day’s coverage, however since Tennis Channel does not own the rights to the semifinals it was contractually prevented from picking up the Federer-del Potro match live even after NBC’s east coast coverage window ended at 1 p.m.

In other words, NBC, as primary rights holder, effectively paid for the right to televise the semifinals, but in reality tennis fans paid the price as the network’s policy prevented live tennis from being telecast.

“We don’t have the rights to air it (live), whether we would’ve wanted to or not,” a Tennis Channel spokesman told Tennis Week. “Basically, when networks buy rights it’s up to them to air or pass on the matches they’ve purchased. During the French Open Tennis Channel sits down every day with our cable partner ESPN to see what we’ll cover and what they’ll cover.”

Unfortunately, that relationship does not extend to NBC and therein lies a significant stumbling block that reduced one of the most exciting days of French Open semifinal play to a live blackout. If NBC is serious about presenting quality live Roland Garros coverage it should seek out an interactive partnership with Tennis Channel and ESPN so that fans aren’t frozen out of live coverage and forced to follow matches on the Roland Garros live scoreboard.

Part of the problem is that Roland Garros traditionally draws a smaller viewing audience than Wimbledon or the US Open — as well as lower ad rates — which may be two other reasons why there’s a history of live tennis going dark from the City of Light. If ad revenue from NBC’s standard soap schedule is more significan than its Roland Garros ad revenue from a business perspective you can argue the network is adhering to the value of the bottom line.

However that approach further disenfranchises an already digusted tennis audience, many of whom have invested 11 days into this French fortnight only to see NBC pull the plug on live coverage during the semifinals. Given the network’s past treatment of Roland Garros as a second-class Slam it’s hardly surprising.

Remember it was only eight years ago that NBC televised the French Open women’s final between Jennifer Capriati and Kim Clijsters on tape delay despite the fact Capriati was the reigning Australian Open champion bidding to become the first American woman since Chris Evert in 1986 to reign at Roland Garros. Capriati conquered Clijsters, 1-6, 6-4, 12-10 to capture the 2001 French Open crown in the longest third set of a women’s final in French Open history, yet NBC opted to televise that match on tape delay.

The prospect of watching Federer pursue history by becoming the sixth man to capture a career Grand Slam and equal Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles may have many tennis fans salivating more than the offer of a lifetime pass to the Louvre accompanied by all the champagne you can drink.

Unfortunately, NBC failed to televise the most dramatic live moments of the day while delivering Days Of Our Lives instead.