News

LOS ANGELES — In March Tennis Channel will offer more than 120 live hours from two of the largest events in tennis, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. With more matches than all other networks combined, the channel plans daylong telecast windows and early round-through-semifinal coverage at each 12-day tournament. In all, via encore replays, Tennis Channel viewers will have access to more than 325 hours of match coverage across both events, with the action underway Saturday, March 10, and continuing through Sunday, April 1.

In a month sports fans have come to know for its brackets, stunning upsets, on-court excellence and hour-after-hour of televised competition, Tennis Channel’s March schedule leaves few stones unturned. Coverage at Indian Wells begins Saturday, March 10, with 12 consecutive hours of men’s and women’s play, the first of five straight days of 12-hour telecasts en route to almost 75 live hours overall. Similar half-days are lined up for Miami starting Saturday, March 24, with a planned 50 live hours on the network’s tournament schedule (see complete schedules below). Within the sport, each event has been referred to as “The Fifth Slam,” and both have tournament fields (brackets), prize packages and attendance figures topped only by tennis’ four majors: Wimbledon, the US Open, French Open and Australian Open.

On-Air Talent

Announcer Brett Haber, part of Tennis Channel’s most recent US Open and Australian Open broadcast teams, will handle play-by-play responsibilities during the BNP Paribas Open, joined by analyst and network-majors mainstay Justin Gimelstob. Lindsay Davenport, who won two singles titles and six doubles crowns as a player at Indian Wells, will also provide insight, as will former doubles specialist Ashley Fisher.

Davenport and Gimelstob will be joined at the Sony Ericsson Open by veteran sportscaster Ted Robinson, who has appeared during multiple network tournament telecasts, among them the US Open, French Open and Davis Cup. Mary Carillo, who joined Tennis Channel in 2011 for its French Open and US Open coverage, will also appear in the Miami booth with Robinson March 26 and 27.

Fans and viewers who want to follow Tennis Channel’s on-air teams on Twitter during March can find them at: @BrettHaber, @justingimelstob, @LDavenport76, @ashley_fisher75 and @tedjrobinson.

Online

Young American player Sloane Stephens will post a periodic video blog on the network’s Web site, www.tennischannel.com, during this year’s BNP Paribas Open, giving visitors an exclusive, off-court look at the action in the desert this spring. During both the Indian Wells and Miami events the Web site will offer interviews, features, live scores, daily highlights, tournament photos, news and blogs as well. Additionally, tennis fans can stay engaged with Tennis Channel on Facebook (facebook.com/tennischannel), Twitter (www.twitter.com/tennischannel) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/tennischannel).

Tennis Channel (tennischannel.com) is the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. A hybrid of comprehensive sports, health, fitness, pop culture, entertainment, lifestyle and travel programming, the network is home to every aspect of the wide-ranging, worldwide tennis community. It also has the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television, with telecast rights to the US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open), Australian Open, Olympus US Open Series, ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events, top-tier WTA competitions, Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and Hyundai Hopman Cup. Tennis Channel is carried by nine of the top 10 video providers.