At 6-6 in the third-set tiebreaker of Federer vs. Wawrinka, Sportsnet1 leaves tennis fans hanging

For nearly three hours, Swiss countrymen and good friends Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka had battled for the right to face No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final match of the season on the ATP Tour.

There were great shots, good shots and woeful shots. There were umpiring fails and screams of frustration, and a tournament that had featured few competitive matches was finally delivering .

Wawrinka served for the match at 5-4 in the third set and after multiple failed net attempts, was broken. Federer was nearly broken himself at 5-5.

And so, they went to a decisive third-set tiebreaker, where Federer had just saved the fourth match point against him as the players changed ends with the score knotted at 6-6.

And then, tennis fans watching on Sportsnet1 got ... this:

Oops. Big oops.

Perhaps someone pushed the wrong button. But it happened at precisely 6 p.m., so more likely the international feed was programmed to go off at that hour, having blocked out three hours from 3 - 6 p.m. for the match – which generally would be more than enough.

(For those who missed it, Federer took the next two points, and the match, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6).)

Sportsnet didn't realize its error for nearly 10 minutes, during which the fans were treated to the 1,765th showing of the Tennis Canada promotional commercial. By the time it returned to the tennis, commentators Jason Goodall and Robbie Koenig were signing off.