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Tennis Channel coverage to feature top players

November 1, 2013

LOS ANGELES — Tennis Channel will televise complete coverage of the 2013 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London Nov. 4-11, as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and doubles brothers Bob and Mike Bryan lead a field of all-stars into the last tournament of the 2013 tour. With daylong matches and nightly encore replays, the network will offer more than 140 total hours of championship coverage – more than 50 live – while the top-eight singles players and doubles teams compete for year-end crowns. The first telecast begins at 7 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 4, with the first match of the event.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is one of the most prestigious, hard-fought events in tennis. Every match has the caliber of a Grand Slam semifinal or final, given the tournament’s round-robin format and strict eligibility requirements. At the end of each season, the eight singles players and doubles teams that have collected the most points during the year qualify for the competition, which is held in London’s O2 Arena. Divided into pools of four, each singles player or doubles pair plays three round-robin matches against everyone else in the group, with the top two advancing to the single-elimination semifinal stage. This means that fans – who pack the O2 Arena and tune in on television – get to see this year’s men’s tennis heavyweights play at least three matches each, with every one coming against a top-ranked opponent.

Tennis Channel’s coverage of the year-end championships will get underway at 7 a.m. ET every day other than Monday, Nov. 11, the last day of the event. The network’s usual daily schedule will include two two-match blocks of coverage, with a morning session that begins at 7 a.m. ET, and an afternoon session at 12:30 p.m. ET (complete schedule follows). Following its first-run coverage Tennis Channel will show an encore of every match of the day, beginning at roughly 5 p.m. ET each evening and running into late night and the early morning.

On Sunday, Nov. 10, the network will air both doubles semifinals live, at 7 a.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET, respectively. Both singles-semifinal encores will be shown beginning at 5 p.m. ET. The doubles championship airs live on Monday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m., followed by the singles championship encore at 8 p.m. ET. Encores of both championships will run throughout Monday night.

The network’s coverage this year will include a new studio set and the launch of Tennis Channel Live, an in-house lead-in and wrap-up show hosted by sportscaster Brett Haber, Hall of Famer Tracy Austin and network analyst Jimmy Arias. Similar to the network’s Live at the US Open tournament lead-in show, Tennis Channel Live will be partnered with select tournament coverage in 2014 and feature analysis, highlights, interviews and other conversation from the network’s Southern California base. During the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, Tennis Channel Live is set to run in two 30-minute segments between matches in both its morning and afternoon sessions. The show will also lead into and out of the afternoon session. In addition to Haber, Austin and Arias in Los Angeles, analyst Justin Gimelstob will be on the ground for Tennis Channel in the O2 Arena in London.

Beyond Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, the five players that have qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals singles draw are David Ferrer, Juan Martin Del Potro, Tomas Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet (with the year’s third-ranked Andy Murray unable to play due to injury).

Six other doubles partners have qualified with the Bryans: Alexander Peya/Bruno Soares, Ivan Dodig/Marcello Melo, Marcel Granollers/Marc Lopez, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi/Jean-Julien Rojer, David Marrero/Fernando Verdasco and Leander Paes/Radek Stepanek.

Tennis Channel’s 2013 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Schedule

(*same-day delay encore; otherwise live)