Tennis Channel to Present 75 Hours of Live U.S. Open Action
Beginning Monday, Aug. 26, Tennis Channel will televise 75 live or first-run match hours of the 2013 US Open, in addition to 90 original hours of nightly show U.S. Open Tonight and morning program Breakfast at the Open. In its fifth year of covering the world’s largest annually attended paid sporting event, the network’s round-the-clock schedule will dedicate close to 240 hours to the two-week tournament. This includes live coverage from first ball through Thursday of the second week, eight-hour match windows the first week, prime-time windows the first weekend, and encore coverage of the men’s and women’s singles and doubles semifinals and finals.
While the US Open is in session from August 26 through September 9, Tennis Channel will bring the tournament to viewers all but a few hours per 24-hour day. The network’s typical day of coverage starts with half-hour introductory show Live at the US Open each morning at 10:30 a.m. ET. In its second year after a 2012 debut, the program will tackle the previous day’s results, coming day’s stories, and again will be hosted by Brett Haber (@BrettHaber), Hall of Famer and two-time US Open winner Tracy Austin (@thetracyaustin) and former player Mark Knowles.
"Last year Live at the U.S. Open allowed us to set the stage each morning in a way that hadn’t been done before on television," said Austin. "I’m looking forward to working with Brett to bring that excitement to Tennis Channel viewers again this year."
Tennis Channel’s eight-hour, live-match window runs from 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. ET every day of the first week. Nightly news and highlight show US Open Tonight will air from 11:00 p.m.-2:30 a.m., and again from 2:30 a.m.-6:00 a.m. Breakfast at the Open will bring viewers a morning dose of tournament highlights and updates from 6:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. During the first weekend, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, Tennis Channel’s live coverage window runs in prime time, from 7:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. ET.
Since it began covering majors with 2007’s French Open, Tennis Channel’s trademark has been an immersive, "Olympic-style" telecast approach, designed to give viewers the nearest approximation to an actual day on the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Wherever the action takes place – on court, in the stands, near the plaza – the network will spend two weeks bringing as much of it into America’s living rooms as possible. There is no tennis tournament like the US Open. Beyond its status as the sport’s largest event, it is known for raucous, vocal crowds and late-night survival contests that are more akin to prize fights than to tennis matches. Coming as it does toward the end of New York’s long, humid summer season, the US Open seems an annual release point for the tension that has built for months inside the sweltering pressure cooker of the city. Players feed off the energy of the crowd and vice versa, perhaps more intensely than in any other tennis venue. Tennis Channel does everything to capture and convey this experience, unique in all of sports.
Veteran sportscaster Bill Macatee (@BMacatee) and Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova (@martina) and Jim Courier will be front and center in New York this year, with Macatee handling play-by-play duties alongside the former players’ analysis. Fellow Hall of Famer Austin also will lend her expertise to the network’s coverage, as will likely future Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76). Queens native Mary Carillo will return for a third US Open, doing just about everything including hosting, analyzing, reporting and interviewing.
Former players Knowles, Justin Gimelstob (@justingimelstob) and Rennae Stubbs (@rennaestubbs) also attended their share of tournament championship ceremonies during their careers, and will be in the booth and on the grounds for Tennis Channel in Flushing Meadow this year. Along with Macatee and Haber, the network’s 2013 US Open play-by-play team features Ted Robinson (@tedjrobinson) and Ian Eagle, while Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) will handle special reports and opinion.
Tennis Channel’s Web site, www.tennischannel.com, will serve as an online hub of US Open activity, with video highlights, scores, interviews, features, Court Report news updates and other tournament-themed content. Tennis reporters Steve Flink and Joel Drucker (@joeldrucker) will post columns for the channel during the event, as will Richard Evans (@Ringham7), new to the site for the US Open event after having joined during Wimbledon. Official US Open hairstylist Julien Farel will return for a third year of blogging for Tennis Channel, and offer an insider’s perspective like no other. The network’s popular tournament prediction game, "Racquet Bracket," also will be back in 2013, as will the opportunity to enter Tennis Channel seasonal sweepstakes.
Tennis Channel’s Live 2013 US Open Coverage Schedule
â–ºMonday, Aug. 26 from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. First-Round Action
â–ºTuesday, Aug. 27 from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. First-Round Action
â–ºWednesday, Aug. 28 from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. First-Round, Second-Round Action
â–ºThursday, Aug. 29 from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Second-Round Action
â–ºFriday, Aug. 30 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Second-Round, Third-Round Action
â–ºSaturday, Aug. 31 from 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Third-Round Action
â–ºSunday, Sept. 1 from 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Third-Round, Fourth-Round Action
â–ºTuesday, Sept. 3 from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Fourth-Round Action, Doubles
â–ºWednesday, Sept. 4 from 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Doubles
â–ºThursday, Sept. 5 from 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Doubles, Juniors, Legends Exhibition
Tennis Channel’s usual 2013 US Open daily coverage schedule (all times ET):
10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. – Live Matches
11 p.m.-2:30 a.m. – U.S. Open Tonight
2:30 a.m.-6 a.m. – U.S. Open Tonight (Encore)
6 a.m.-10:30 a.m. – Breakfast at the Open
