Tennis Channel

A New Racquet Sport Launched By Tennis Channel Founder Steve Bellamy With Celebrity Investors

January 20, 2026 by Randy Walker 4 Comments

Steve Bellamy, Chairman and CEO of TYPTI Inc., and founder of the Tennis Channel, announced today the launch of TYPTI, a new racquet sport played on a standard pickleball court with a 22-inch strung racquet, a 3.5-inch diameter channeled foam ball, and a new scoring system. TYPTI begins with a national circuit, major partnerships, and committed top players to grow the sport rapidly.

The all-skill level national competitive play circuit will begin with the first event on February 25 at the Calabasas Pickleball Club. The professional division will guarantee over $100,000 in total prize money with at least $500,000 of prize money events in year one. Year-two events will have over $1,000,000 in prize money featuring an integrated draw allowing players from all over the US to participate locally to start.

“We’re creating an infrastructure of tennis and pickleball clubs, entrepreneurs, family offices, racquet sport mavens and lovers, and cities who understand the economic impact of participatory sports,” Bellamy said. “We’re sanctioning tournaments and league teams, and looking for brands wanting to leverage sports to market their products. We’re also scouring the country for amazing players who can be the first generation of TYPTI stars. Basically, we’re building a really smart racquet sport and creating a community for the infrastructure.”

A mixture of badminton and tennis, the sport is nearly noiseless and easy on the body, with low shock at impact and no overhead serve. It’s incredibly easy for beginners and chess like for the pros. Most of all, it’s incredibly fun to play for all levels. With the explosion of pickleball courts across the country, TYPTI launches with tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure already in place for players to adopt and embrace the sport.

Anyone who has a pickleball court now has a TYPTI court. “TYPTI reminds me of snowboarding in 1986,” said Tony Robbins, No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, and the world‘s No. 1 life and business strategist. “Snowboarding exploded profits at ski resorts by adding a second use case to the mountain. That’s what TYPTI will do for pickleball clubs and tennis clubs with pickleball. And the accessibility is unparalleled. While it’s mind-blowing what the top players are doing with the ball, beginners can have great rallies in minutes. That’s not typical for racquet sports, where the barriers of entry prevent the majority from using them as a tool for physical fitness. TYPTI blows the doors off those barriers and will be an unparalleled tool for physical fitness and mental health.”

Added Bellamy: “I’ve spent my career helping racquet sports grow because they’re a powerful gift to society. Our goal is not to cannibalize other racquet sports like tennis and pickleball, but instead bring the 25 million former players in the U.S. who don’t play anymore back on the court. If they play TYPTI and then migrate to tennis, pickleball, badminton, table tennis or padel, then that will be a huge success for the entire industry.”

The new sport has inked a number of important partnerships with collegiate, racquet and coaching organizations, including the Racquet Sports Professional Association with over 14,000 teaching pros. “The initial response to TYPTI is VERY positive,” said Brian Dillman, RSPA CEO. “We hosted an introduction to TYPTI in Hawaii and then had a webinar to talk in more detail and our members were captivated. The connection to tennis, additional utilization for pickleball courts, reduced noise and the organization’s tenacity will entice many people to play. We have partnered with TYPTI and will be working to help market the sport and develop coaching models exclusive to RSPA members.”

There is also an agreement in place with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association to have a significant prize money collegiate championship. “We’re always looking for ways to enhance the lives of our student athletes,” said David Mullin, ITA CEO. “TYPTI will be a very smart option for some collegiate tennis players as the mechanics of the two sports are so similar.”

OLO brand racquets and balls are available at TYPTI.com with more brands coming shortly. “We’re happy to announce the redevelopment of a TYPTI Prince Precision Mono,” said Tim Puttock from Prince Tennis. “We love that they’re being managed with product and excited to be there near the ground floor.”

TYPTI is financed by many strategic investors including Tony Robbins, Drew Brees, Chris Pine, JJ Abrams, Bert Kreischer, Tiffany Haddish, Heather Mills, Kyle MacLachlan, Melissa Rivers, Giovanni Ribisi, Kenny Moore, Jen Prince, Nick Kyrgios, Milos Raonic, Prakash Amritraj, JT Mollner, Gil Henry, David Flaherty, Desiree Gruber, Andrew Segal, Barry Allen and Tony Pritzker to name but a sliver of the nearly 100 blue chip investors. TYPTI (www.TYPTI.com) is a new racquet sport, played on a standard pickleball court with a 22-inch strung racquet, a 3.5-inch channeled foam ball, and a new scoring method that uniquely marries risk and reward. TYPTI is nearly noiseless, easy on the body as ball strikes

Tennis Channel Extends Partnership To Broadcast Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup

August 4, 2025 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

Tennis Channel and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) have extended their long-running partnership with the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge^TM and Davis Cup, the World Cup of Tennis events for women and men, respectively.

Under the new multi-year agreement, Tennis Channel will remain the exclusive U.S. home for both tournaments across its linear channel, app and TennisChannel.com, continuing a relationship that began in 2009. The deal now runs through 2027 for the Billie Jean King Cup and 2028 for the Davis Cup. The extension also marks a significant expansion of Tennis Channel’s international reach, with rights to broadcast in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Additionally, rights for the Billie Jean King Cup have been secured in Spain – a new and important market where interest in women’s tennis continues to see strong growth.

The ITF is the global governing body of tennis and organises the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge and Davis Cup, the two largest annual international team competitions in the sport. Both events are played annually, with nations from across the world competing at a variety of stages throughout the year for the chance to progress to the next level.

Both competitions culminate with finals events that feature the year’s top eight nations competing in a knock-out competition for the right to be crowned world champions.

The Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals will take place in Shenzhen, China, September 16-21, while the Davis Cup Final 8 is set for Bologna, Italy, November 18-23.

David Haggerty, ITF President, said “For many years Tennis Channel has helped bring the World Cup of Tennis to millions of people around the world and this extension is great news for both Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup. We look forward to continuing to work alongside Tennis Channel to continue this growth for years to come.”

The United States has won the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge 18 times and the Davis Cup 32 times, both records.

“Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup are iconic events in our sport and pillars of Tennis Channel’s schedule throughout the year,” said Jeff Blackburn, Chairman and CEO, Tennis Channel. “We’ve had a long-running partnership with the ITF and can’t wait for this next chapter with them. Together we want to shine as much light as we can on the history and passion surrounding the cups, and grow awareness and fans in both the U.S. and other countries.”

The Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge remains the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s tennis, with nations competing year-round for a place in the Finals. As the women’s World Cup of Tennis it brings together top players to represent their countries on a global stage, continuing a tradition of national pride and elite-level competition.

“We’re proud to strengthen our partnership with Tennis Channel, particularly in key international markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and now Spain, where women’s tennis continues to flourish. As the world’s leading platform for women’s national team tennis, the Billie Jean King Cup celebrates national pride, incredible talent and unique spirit on a global stage. This collaboration reflects our long-term commitment to showcasing the power of women’s tennis and expanding its reach to even more fans around the world,” said Kerstin Lutz, CEO of Billie Jean King Cup Limited.

This rights announcement comes on the heels of roster announcements made for the eight countries that have qualified for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in September. Among the stars who will try to help their nations become world champions are Jessica Pegula (USA), Zheng Qinwen (China), Madison Keys (USA), Jasmine Paolini (Italy), Paula Badosa (Spain), Naomi Osaka (Japan), Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan), Emma Raducanu (Great Britain) and Elina Svitolina (Ukraine).

This Player Not Only Got Defaulted From The Modern-Day U.S. Open But Got Suspended For Life!

June 5, 2025 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

There was a feature on Tennis Channel and Tennis.com that counted down the top 10 “Biggest Hot Heads In Tennis.” As with many of these polls and rankings, mainly recent players are featured, while many players prior to the 1980s are not mentioned.

One “hot head” not featured was Cliff Richey, whose nick-name was “Bull” because of his temperament was about as subtle as a bull. A once-famous – now forgotten – episode involving Richey and his temper came at the Washington, D.C. tournament when, disputing the condition of the clay court, actually ripped up the nailed-down baseline strip of the court. Richey discusses this – and other on and off-court incidents – in his memoir “Acing Depression: The Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match.”

Before Richey, there was Dennis Ralston, who was so ill-tempered that his nick-name was “Dennis the Menace” and was once suspended from the 1961 U.S. Nationals at Forest Hills.

However, perhaps the biggest hot head that was overlooked in the poll was the only player who was banned for life from tennis due to his temper.

His name was Earl Cochell and he, like Ralston, was a former member of the University of Southern California men’s tennis team. Cochell actually received a life-time ban from tennis due mainly to an incident at the 1951 U.S. Nationals against Garnar Mulloy. Mark Young features Cochell in his book on ”Trojan Tennis Trojan Tennis: A History of the Storied Men’s Tennis Program at the University of Southern California” (for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559823/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_fTOhCbTHFW8JX) and describes the incident description as follows:

A passionate competitor, Cochell was known to have a fierce temper. During a Round of 16 match at the U.S. Championships in 1951 against Gardnar Mulloy, Cochell, after splitting the first two sets, but down 4-1 in the third, decided to throw that set and save his energy to come out strong in the fourth set. When it became obvious to the crowd that he was throwing the set (he began to serve underhanded), they started to boo and heckle him. Cochell began to yell back. The chair umpire asked Cochell to “play tennis,” at which point he attempted to climb the umpire’s chair to grab the microphone. Cochell was pulled back before he could get the mike. At one point he hoisted his racket to the crowd as an extension of his middle finger.

After he lost the fourth set to Mulloy, he confronted refer Ellsworth Davenport and used such abusive language that the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (now the USTA) banned him from tennis for life. To this day he holds the distinction of being the only tennis player to have ever been sanctioned for life by the USTA. In 1962, he was reinstated, but by that point he was no longer competitive.

Cochell’s teammate (Don) Eisenberg was surprised by the news about him when the news of his famous tantrum came out. “In 1951, I played Ed in a Palm Springs tournament and I won the first set and had a chance in the second. He could have gone off and shown his temper then but I don’t recall anything. I do remember that he was a character, would clown around a lot and had a good sense of humor. He would also would sing opera while he was walking between classes. After the Forest Hills incident, I never heard from him again.”

“Trojan Tennis: A History of the Storied Men’s Tennis Program at the University of Southern California” by USC men’s tennis historian and Marshall School of Business professor S. Mark Young, is the first-ever book about a college tennis program. Published by New Chapter Press, “Trojan Tennis” documents the most successful college tennis program, dating from 1899 through the end of the 2016-17 season. USC tennis legends Stan Smith and Stevie Johnson both contributed forewords to the hardcover book that features interviews with many of the program’s greatest players also including Alex Olmedo, Dennis Ralston, Bob Lutz, Rick Leach, Luke Jensen as well as legendary coaches George Toley, Dick Leach and Peter Smith. While the progress of the team is central, readers will be fascinated by the biographical details of the key figures in each time period, which are enhanced by extensive footnotes drawing from archival materials, including personal letters, scrapbooks, published news stories, and original interviews.

“We are so lucky Dr. Mark Young found us,” said Peter Smith, the USC men’s tennis coach. “He had a dream to write the story of the USC men’s tennis team. Little did any of us know what a the grand that lay ahead of him. Mark looked into every detail and every character – the story is a great read. He is the perfect person to tell our story and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”

Tennis Channel To Offer Close To 140 Hours Live From Roland Garros In 2024

May 20, 2024 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

Tennis Channel alone will offer close to 140 hours of live competition this year, becoming America’s 24-hour “Roland Garros Network” again in 2024 as it has since its first year at the event in 2007. Almost 200 hours of encores will air after live play concludes each day, running through the evening and late night to the start of the next morning’s matches. Most days coverage begins at 5 a.m. ET and runs into the afternoon (complete schedule below).

From May 26-June 5, Tennis Channel will have live, daily coverage from the first round through the quarterfinals. The mixed-doubles final and women’s singles semifinals will air live on Thursday, June 6. Friday, June 7, will see the men’s singles semifinals live, before the women’s doubles final on Sunday, June 9. Same-day men’s and women’s singles and doubles finals will air throughout championship weekend.

T2 is available to everyone in the United States for free, and will show more than 100 hours of live French Open play this year, daily competition that will not appear on Tennis Channel. Viewers who have both networks will be able to switch back and forth between two distinct matches for most of the tournament. When not live, T2 will show more than 230 hours of encore replays this year.

On Saturday, June 8, the channel will air the junior girls’ and boys’ singles finals back to back beginning at 5 a.m. ET.

Most U.S. households already have access to T2. Platforms that carry the channel include Amazon’s Freevee, Prime Video and Fire TV, as well as Roku, Fubo, Hulu, YouTube TV, Samsung TV Plus, Vizio Watch Free+ and Plex.
Tennis Channel+ will also offer live coverage during Roland Garros this year. Subscribers will have access to 15 days and close to 900 matches, for approximately 2,225 live hours of play. Users will also have the option of selecting from up to 16 court feeds again. Following their conclusion, all Roland Garros matches will be available on-demand on Tennis Channel+, regardless of where they first appeared live.

French Open qualifying matches will air live on Tennis Channel this week, Monday, May 20-Saturday, May 25. The competition will be part of the network’s Courtside telecasts of clay-court events on the eve of Roland Garros. Tennis Channel Live at Roland Garros will preview this year’s tournament Saturday, May 25, at 11 a.m. ET. The news-and-analysis show will then air Tuesday and Wednesday, June 4 and 5, at 2 p.m. ET, and again Thursday, June 6, through Sunday, June 9, at 8 a.m. ET.

On-Air Talent
Tennis Channel’s 2024 French Open team includes 16 former professional players – including three Hall of Famers – and award-winning sportscasters and reporters. Analyst Martina Navratilova (@Martina) is among the greatest athletes of all time and has been with the network since its first Roland Garros in 2007. The Hall of Famer won 11 titles in Paris during an unparalleled career: two singles (1982, 1984), seven doubles (1975, 1982, 1984-1988) and two mixed doubles (1991-1992).

Analysts Jim Courier and Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76) are also French Open champions and Hall of Fame inductees. Courier is a back-to-back singles tournament winner (1991-1992) and Davenport a mixed-doubles victor in 1996.

Other Tennis Channel French Open team members have also found success on the sport’s greatest stages. Paul Annacone (@paul_annacone) is known for coaching legends Pete Sampras and Roger Federer to major titles, but won the Australian Open doubles crown in his own right as a player in 1985. Announcer Chanda Rubin (@Chanda_Rubin) won the doubles title Down Under 11 years later in 1996. Fellow announcer Jimmy Arias (@ariastennis) achieved mixed-doubles glory as well, on the famed springtime clay of Paris in 1981.

Star Andrea Petkovic (@andreapetkovic) retired after the 2022 US Open and joins Tennis Channel as French Open analyst for the first time. In 2014 she reached the singles semifinals at the event. Announcers Jan-Michael Gambill (@JanmikeGambill) and Jill Craybas (@jcray74) also delivered deep advances at the majors: Gambill reached the Wimbledon singles semifinals in 2000 while Craybas fought her way to the US Open mixed-doubles semifinal in 2008.

Announcers Leif Shiras (@leifshiras), CiCi Bellis (@cicibellis), Jason Goodall, Louise Pleming (@, Nicolas Pereira (@nicolaspereira) and Mark Petchey (@_markpetchey) will call matches for Tennis Channel during Roland Garros this year as well. Each of them logged matches on the professional circuit.

Prakash Amritraj (@PrakashAmritraj) completes the roster of former players on air for the network this year. The year-round host of “Prakash Worldwide” interview segments from events around the globe will offer his perspective on the desk of Tennis Channel Live at Roland Garros. The program is hosted by announcer Steve Weissman (@Steve_Weissman) and includes Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim), who will also handle feature reports and essays during the competition.

The lineup of Roland Garros announcers also features longtime Tennis Channel representatives and Emmy Award winners Ted Robinson (@tedjrobinson) and Brett Haber (@BrettHaber). Noah Eagle (@NoahEagle15) who has announced matches on the network before, joins its French Open team for the first time this spring and will call night session matches. Additionally, Gill Gross (@Gill_Gross) returns to the channel’s French Open team this year.

Digital Coverage
Tennis.com and the network’s app are the go-to platforms for everything related to Roland Garros, and free to anyone in the world with an iOS or Android system. In addition to live scoring, brackets, schedules, news, features and highlights, the sites give users win-prediction percentages and estimated start times for tournament matches. There are also favorite-player feeds and direct links to live matches.

Visitors can play Tennis Channel’s “Racquet Bracket” before the tournament gets underway and guess how the 2024 French Open will unfold. Meanwhile, its Bally Sport Caller Match Point Predictor Game lets fans keep playing throughout the event. Both interactive activities are free and offer prizes to winners.
Tennis Channel’s Live 2024 French Open Coverage

Date Time (ET) Event
Sunday, May 26 5 a.m.-5:30 p.m. First Round
Monday, May 27 5 a.m.-3 p.m. First Round
Tuesday, May 28 5 a.m.-5:30 p.m. First Round
Wednesday, May 29 5 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Second Round
Thursday, May 30 5 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Second Round
Friday, May 31 5 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Third Round
Saturday, June 1 5 a.m.-1 p.m. Third Round
Sunday, June 2 5 a.m.-1 p.m. Round of 16
Monday, June 3 5 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Round of 16
Tuesday, June 4 5 a.m.-12 p.m.;
2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Quarterfinals
Wednesday, June 5 5 a.m.-12 p.m.;
2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Quarterfinals
Thursday, June 6 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Mixed-Doubles Final; Women’s Semifinals
Friday, June 7 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Men’s Semifinals
Sunday, June 9 5:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. Women’s Doubles Final

Same-day encores of the men’s and women’s singles finals will air on Tennis Channel again in 2024 (all times ET):
Saturday, June 8 – 2 p.m.: women’s singles final, men’s doubles final (and again at 6 p.m.)
Sunday, June 9 – men’s singles final; 6 p.m.: men’s singles final, women’s doubles final

Tennis Channel (www.tennischannel.com) and its sibling network T2, which are owned by Sinclair, Inc., are the only television-based multiplatform destinations dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. The networks have the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television in one of the world’s most voluminous sports, with multiple men’s and women’s tournaments and singles, doubles and mixed competition throughout the year. Tennis Channel and T2 have rights at the four majors – US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open) and Australian Open – and are the exclusive U.S. homes of all men’s ATP World Tour and women’s WTA Tour competitions, Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, United Cup, and Laver Cup. Direct-to-consumer streaming service Tennis Channel+ is available to everyone in the United States and allows subscribers to select from another 4,500 live and on-demand matches and award-winning content from short-form to films throughout the tennis season. Tennis Channel International brings live competition and network content to markets in Europe and Asia via digital subscription and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels. Additional platform www.tennis.com is the largest digital outlet dedicated to the sport. Tennis Channel also oversees a network of close to 20 podcasts and is a co-owner of Pickleballtv, a joint-venture with the Professional Pickleball Association.

About Sinclair, Inc.
Sinclair, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) is a diversified media company and a leading provider of local news and sports. The Company owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets affiliated with all the major broadcast networks; owns Tennis Channel and multicast networks Comet, CHARGE!, TBD and The Nest; and owns and provides services to 21 regional sports network brands. Sinclair’s content is delivered via multiple platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program distributors, and the nation’s largest streaming aggregator of local news content, NewsON. The Company regularly uses its website as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at www.sbgi.net.

#

“Women Only!” Tennis Channel To Devote Tuesday Broadcasts On T2 To Only Women’s Tennis Matches

May 14, 2024 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES, May 14, 2024 – Tennis Channel will take the unprecedented television step of devoting one day a week exclusively to women’s competition when it introduces Women’s Day on its T2 channel, beginning Tuesday, June 11. Throughout the year, Tuesdays will feature the best women’s tennis players in the world live on T2, widely available throughout the United States – for free.

Both Tennis Channel and T2 will continue to show top-level men’s and women’s tennis interchangeably Wednesday through Monday, as each network has done since its launch. For the first time, however, fans of WTA women’s professional tennis will have an entire television day devoted to the stars they love. It also will mark the beginning of more free live women’s tennis on American television than ever before.

“Because of the nature of our sport, Tennis Channel has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to celebrating women’s competition,” said Irv Schulman, senior vice president, national sports sales, Sinclair Sports Group. “The list of women who were pioneers in both tennis and athletics is long – Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, and Venus and Serena Williams, to name a few – and they helped to build the foundation for the recognition of other women’s sports over the years. We’re really excited to further commit to the best women’s tennis players in the world and their fans with a day of matches dedicated exclusively to them on T2 every week, completely free.”

Tennis is the most gender balanced of all traditionally popular American sports, with men’s and women’s headliners for more than 100 years, and both sexes watching men’s and women’s tennis equally. The average viewership skew for women’s matches on Tennis Channel platforms is a perfectly even 50% between men and women, according to Nielsen 2q23-1q24 live plus same day. Similarly, men’s matches attract a comparable 51% men and 49% women. Throughout the year, on average, men’s matches on Tennis Channel generate a mere 6% larger audience than women’s.
The first match Tennis Channel ever showed was a women’s match featuring American icon Venus Williams in 2003.

Introduced in March 2022, T2 has grown rapidly to reach more than 100-million homes today. Most U.S. households already have access to T2 at no extra cost. Platforms that carry the channel include Amazon’s Freevee, Prime Video and Fire TV, as well as Roku, Fubo, Hulu, YouTube TV, Samsung TV Plus, Vizio Watch Free+ and Plex.

Though Tennis Channel is not planning on it, given the nature of live sports, some exceptions to Women’s Day programming may take place in the case of inclement weather or other unforeseen scheduling demands.
Tennis Channel (www.tennischannel.com) and its sibling network T2, which are owned by Sinclair, Inc., are the only television-based multiplatform destinations dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. The networks have the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television in one of the world’s most voluminous sports, with multiple men’s and women’s tournaments and singles, doubles and mixed competition throughout the year. Tennis Channel and T2 have rights at the four majors – US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open) and Australian Open – and are the exclusive U.S. homes of all men’s ATP World Tour and women’s WTA Tour competitions, Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, United Cup, and Laver Cup. Direct-to-consumer streaming service Tennis Channel Plus is available to everyone in the United States and allows subscribers to select from another 4,500 live and on-demand matches and award-winning content from short-form to films throughout the tennis season. Tennis Channel International brings live competition and network content to markets in Europe and Asia via digital subscription and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels. Additional platform www.tennis.com is the largest digital outlet dedicated to the sport. Tennis Channel also manages a network of close to 20 podcasts and FAST channel Pickleballtv, a partnership with the Professional Pickleball Association.

#

Andy Roddick’s Podcast Show To Air On Tennis Channel’s “T2” Sundays At 7 PM ET

February 13, 2024 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

Hall of Famer Andy Roddick’s newly created video podcast has found a nationally televised home on Tennis Channel’s T2, available to everyone in the United States on free-to-consumer platforms. Beginning Sunday, March 3, Served with Andy Roddick will debut each week at 7 p.m. ET on T2 most nights, followed by multiple encore editions throughout the week. The hourlong podcast features the irreverent host Roddick – who won the 2003 US Open singles championship at age 21 and spent most of his career as America’s top-ranked men’s tennis player – engaging his guests with quips, commentary, humor and debate about the sport he knows so well. The program is delivered in the straight, no-nonsense approach for which he has always been known.

The Served with Andy Roddick podcast, produced by Roddick’s Served Media, premiered on January 29 and featured Tennis Channel reporter and analyst Jon Wertheim (also of Sports Illustrated and CBS’ 60 Minutes fame) as its initial guest. The show includes Roddick’s and his visitors’ takes on the issues facing the sport today and can be listened to on popular podcast platforms. Beginning March 3, the program will premiere exclusively on T2 on Sunday evenings – depending on live tennis coverage windows – with the audio version posting on the Served Media podcast channels on Tuesdays. After T2 re-airs it throughout the week, each video edition of Served with Andy Roddick will be available on the Served Media YouTube podcast the Sunday after its debut.

T2 launched in 2022 and is Tennis Channel’s second television network, available free or at no extra cost to everyone in the United States on Amazon Freevee, Fubo, Hulu, Roku, YouTube TV and Samsung TV Plus. With daily, year-round matches that do not appear on Tennis Channel, T2 provides more free live tennis annually than ever before in American television history.
Roddick began working with Tennis Channel as an analyst in 2020.

“I’m happy to partner with Tennis Channel to bring the podcast to T2 audiences around the country,” said Roddick. “Tennis Channel viewers are as passionate about the sport as I am, are smart and expect the truth – no sugar coating. We’re going to give them that each week on T2 and have a lot of fun in the process.”

Roddick has been the year-end No. 1-ranked player in the world and is a 32-time singles champion and star who finished in the top 10 for much of his career. This includes nine consecutive years from 2002-2010. He was respected by opponents and fans around the planet as a threat to win any event he entered. A consistent force on the U.S. Davis Cup team, in 2007 Roddick led the Americans to their first championship in 12 years, defeating Russia in the finals. He is second behind John McEnroe in all-time U.S. Davis Cup singles-match victories (33) and remains the most recent American man to win a singles title at one of tennis’ four major tournaments. Roddick was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.

Indian Wells will be livestreamed in full on The Tennis Channel

October 5, 2021 by tennisbloggers 2 Comments

Tennis Channel and its affiliated platforms will be the only places to watch the prestigious BNP Paribas Open – known as one of the sport’s “Fifth Slams” – when it returns to Indian Wells, Calif., October 6-17, after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus due to the worldwide pandemic. This will mark the first time in the network’s 18-year history that it will be home to the entire event, from first ball to last. While Tennis Channel has held the lion’s share of live coverage for many years, in 2021 it will add championship weekend and all matches to its lineup.

The milestone comes with the BNP Paribas Open’s return to the tennis calendar after missing its usual place in March the past two years. On the eve of the 2020 tournament, with COVID-19 cases rapidly expanding in the United States, the cancellation of the event for the first time in its history was the first in a domino effect that saw the unprecedented shutdown of amateur and professional sports activity across the country within days for health and safety purposes. Though not being held in the springtime this year, the 2021 BNP Paribas Open in October is, for some, a long-awaited restoration of that original American sports-landscape loss and a much-needed balm.

From Opening Day Wednesday, Oct. 6, to Championship Sunday, Oct. 17, Tennis Channel will be the round-the-clock home of the BNP Paribas Open, with live 12-hour blocks most days followed by all-night encore replays. In all, the network plans 120 live hours of coverage on air, with another 145 hours of encores for close to 170 hours overall from the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Streaming service Tennis Channel Plus will offer live men’s and women’s competition daily and on-demand matches throughout the event, including the opportunity for subscribers to choose from multiple courts each day.

Live coverage begins Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 1 p.m. ET, and will run through approximately 1 a.m. ET (complete schedule below). Encores will air from 1 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET. The schedule will be similar throughout the event, with telecasts starting every day at 1 p.m. ET other than Championship Sunday, Oct. 17, when the women’s singles final begins at 4 p.m. ET and the men’s singles final takes place at 7 p.m. ET.

Tennis Channel Live at the BNP Paribas Open will introduce each day’s coverage at 1 p.m. ET daily except for Championship Sunday, Oct. 17, when it will take place between the women’s and men’s singles finals. Hosted by announcer Steve Weissman (@steve_weissman), the hour-long show will feature commentary, opinion and special reports from on-air team members, along with interviews and guest appearances. The network’s on-site studio is based inside the tournament’s main court, Stadium 1, with a wide, glass backdrop overlooking the spectator viewing section on the lawn below.

Parent-company Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Bally Sports regional networks (RSNs) will also provide live coverage seven of the BNP Paribas Open’s 12 days, making more of the tournament available on television than ever before. Starting at 2 p.m. ET daily, from Thursday, Oct. 7, to Wednesday, Oct. 13, the RSNs will have access to four-hour blocks of exclusive matches from courts that will not appear on Tennis Channel. Fans will be able to choose between two different live matches on Tennis Channel or their regional sports network during these time periods.

On-Air Talent for the Tennis Channel

Combined, the members of Tennis Channel’s 2021 BNP Paribas Open on-air team have won 14 championships in the Southern California desert. Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova (@Martina), Jim Courier and Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76) return to the event in 2021 as Tennis Channel analysts. Navratilova won back-to-back singles championships in 1990 and 1991, while Courier took the singles and doubles crowns in 1991, and another singles title in 1993. Davenport claimed singles trophies in 1997 and 2000, and doubles victories in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003.

They will be joined by fellow analyst Chanda Rubin (@Chanda_Rubin), who won the event’s 1996 doubles championship. Former players James Blake (@JRBlake), Paul Annacone (@paul_annacone) and Prakash Amritraj (@PrakashAmritraj) are also back on Tennis Channel’s BNP Paribas Open on-air team. They will be joined by newcomer and current player Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard), who is recovering from shoulder surgery. This is Bouchard’s first time in Indian Wells as a part of the network’s analyst team. This summer she offered commentary for the network for the first time during coverage of events in Washington, Montreal and Toronto. Three-time ATP tournament winner Jan-Michael Gambill (@JanmikeGambill) has offered analysis for Tennis Channel multiple times in the past and will offer commentary for the Bally Sports regional networks’ matches at Indian Wells for the first time this year.
Brett Haber (@BrettHaber) is a longtime Tennis Channel host and announcer and will handle play-by-play responsibilities during the BNP Paribas Open. This is Hall of Famer Pam Shriver’s (@PHShriver) first time as a Tennis Channel announcer in Indian Wells. Along with Navratilova, she is part of the only women’s doubles team to win all four majors in a calendar year, in 1984. Former players Leif Shiras (@ShirasLeif) and Jason Goodall round out the network’s announcer lineup. Shiras will call matches that appear on the RSNs, while Goodall is in his first appearance with the channel at the event.

In addition to hosting Tennis Channel Live at the BNP Paribas Open, Weissman will anchor the network’s desk throughout the tournament.

Digital Tennis Channel broadcasts

Streaming service Tennis Channel Plus is available to everyone in the United States regardless of whether or not they subscribe to the television network, and will offer all BNP Paribas Open men’s and women’s matches live and on demand. Additionally, the network’s new Tennis.com website and app are free to anyone anywhere, and provide tournament information, scores, rankings, news, win-probability rates, head-to-head results, highlights, estimated start times, and scoreboard links to replays and live matches for Tennis Channel and Tennis Channel Plus subscribers.
The network’s social media team will offer behind-the-scenes looks at the tournament as well, and will work with Bouchard and other on-air team members to provide original videos, Instagram takeovers and exclusive fan-oriented content. Fans can stay tuned on Tennis Channel’s Instagram (www.instagram.com/tennischannel), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tennischannel), Twitter (www.twitter.com/tennischannel) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/tennischannel) pages, and Tennis.com’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/TennisMedia) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/Tennis) pages.

Site Unseen: A Lament for the Untelevised Early Rounds at Indian Wells

March 6, 2013 by Jesse Pentecost

The Indian Wells Outer Courts, scene of many unwitnessed classics.

The main draw matches at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells are scheduled to commence today, which is to say on Wednesday morning local time. Even as I write, the men’s qualifying draw – dense with fascinating matches – is slimming down to an even dozen. The women’s qualifying draw is already there.
Television coverage is due to begin on Friday, provided initially by the Tennis Channel. In the dreary parlance of marketing, we are informed that this is ‘one day earlier than the network’s traditional first-Saturday start’, ‘tradition’ in this case being employed capaciously to denote anything that previously happened for any length of time at all. For the arithmetically challenged, this radical new Friday start will occur fully two days after main draw play begins. I’m not the first person to note this discrepancy, and I won’t be the last. Nor would I be the first to suggest that the decision to delay coverage until the third day of play isn’t driven by money.
In any case, pointing it out is redundant, since no one, including the networks, is pretending otherwise. Instead we’re left to bask in the rapturous news that ‘the tournament will culminate with 12 live hours on ESPN networks’. One cannot elude the impression that the fans are supposed to be grateful. Any fans particularly overcome by gratitude are encouraged to call up the network and let them know.
However, it is debatable whether the main draw really begins today. Indian Wells, like Miami, doles out an extravagant selection of byes: all thirty-two seeds are granted safe passage to the second round, the point at which Andy Murray ‘traditionally’ loses. This is precisely one third of the main draw (which is 96 strong). The remaining 64 players – qualifiers, wildcards and those unwashed members of the top hundred whom Ernests Gulbis cannot pick out of a police line-up – are left to vie for the privilege of facing a seed. By this rationale, the Indian Wells first round is really just a supplementary or transitional qualifying round. In order for a seeded player to win the title, he or she must win six matches. A non-seeded direct entrant or wildcard must win seven matches. Qualifiers must win nine matches. It doesn’t seem fair, but, once again, I assume that’s the point.
The goal of seeding is to protect the best players from having to face each other early on, thus limiting the opportunity for upsets. A little over a decade ago the seeding in 96 (and 128) player draws was expanded from sixteen to thirty-two players, which provided added protection. The bye system provides even greater protection. Even without a bye it is eminently unlikely that, say, Victoria Azarenka would lose in the first round, but the bye removes any doubt whatsoever, thereby transforming a theoretical unlikelihood into a practical impossibility. For the general sports fan – who really just wants to see the most famous players facing off – this probably isn’t a bad thing.
More to the point, it isn’t a bad thing for ESPN. Those twelve hours of semifinals and finals coverage that we’re supposed to be grateful for didn’t come cheap. ESPN will do everything it can to guarantee the best return on its investment, and from their point of view the best return is to have Federer, Sharapova, Nadal, Williams, Djokovic and Azarenka present at the tournament’s conclusion. (Williams of course won’t be at Indian Wells, and you can be sure that the presiding television interests aren’t thrilled about that.) The only exceptions are if a local player makes a deep run. Last year’s men’s event was thus pure spun gold: Federer and Nadal in one semifinal, and Isner defeating Djokovic in the other. Each protagonist was recognisable to a general sports fan, and the narrative of local boy making good is always compelling.
And it’s those general fans that provide ESPN’s revenue, which has invested considerable time and effort grooming Chris Fowler in order that he can render the eldritch intricacies of the sport comprehensible for the layperson. In and of itself, there’s no inherent problem with having the best players contest the later rounds at every tournament. Some may (justifiably) contend that seeing the same few players fight for titles each week grows stale. On the other hand, the freshness gained by seeing a new face is often offset by the perfunctory thrashing they receive when they encounter an elite player. But it is a problem when the urge to see certain outcomes causes the sport to tilt results in that direction, which is more or less the tacit goal of the bye system (and, let’s be frank, the seeding system). The top players have an objectively easier time reaching the later rounds than their lower-ranked peers, notwithstanding that they’re already better players anyway.
Unlike ESPN, the Tennis Channel by definition caters to viewers with a specific interest in the sport itself, who’re willing to pay a premium to watch tennis theoretically whenever they want to (though in practice they’re often constrained by the superior purchasing power of rival networks). These are fans whose interest extends beyond Sharapova or Nadal, all the way to, say, Gasquet and Kuznetsova, and beyond. Although, apparently not far beyond. Not far enough that they’ll get to see the WTA’s first round, let alone any qualifying. Fans who are that hardcore will have to resort to alternative means, such as audio coverage through the website.
The combination of the 96 draw and a midweek start (rare in tennis) conspires to make the qualifying event feel more like a part of the tournament than is elsewhere the case. Qualifying began on Monday, which is the point at which tournaments traditionally begin – and here the term ‘tradition’ is warranted. Meanwhile having a weirdly inconsequential first round helps the qualifying tournament shade into the main one. In some ways, this would be a nice thing, if it wasn’t so effectively undone by the clear message of the television coverage, which is that the initial few days (and the men and women playing on those days) aren’t worth the effort. The three levels of fandom, it seems, neatly correlate with the three classes of players in the respective tours: the big names, the lesser names, and the unwatchables.
Sadly, the lack of early-round coverage hardly helps the lower ranked players, whose already anaemic aspirations might be starved by a lack of exposure. What Indian Wells really does is reinforce the multi-tiered system that seeding originally created, and that the expanded seeding arrangement later augmented. The television schedule then makes it clear for all the non-seeds that their necessary toils do not merit a wider audience.
The BNP Paribas Open likes to refer to itself as the unofficial fifth Slam. This is mostly a fairly meaningless marketing term, but it is only rendered more so by the consideration that the last Major we enjoyed – the Australian Open – had coverage not only from day one, but high-definition streams running through qualifying. Indian Wells certainly has the money – the prizemoney increase this year is to be heartily applauded – and the technological wherewithal. I can watch Thiemo de Bakker play Christian Garin at a Challenger in Santiago, but I couldn’t watch Gulbis play Christian Harrison in southern California. Is it too much to ask to have some cameras rolling from the outset?

The Fault of Untelevised Matches at the Australian Open

January 14, 2013 by Yeshayahu Ginsburg

Viktor Troicki crashed out to Radek Stepanek on Day 1 of the Australian Open on an untelevised court

By Yeshayahu Ginsburg

There was a lot of very good tennis scheduled and played on the first day of the Australian Open. Unlike other Slams, which split up the first round into three days, the Australian Open plays exactly half of the first-round singles matches on each of the first two days. That means 32 of each men’s and women’s matches on Day 1, with the same scheduled for Day 2. The problem with that, for myself and for every other fan not actually on the grounds in Melbourne, is that less than half of them are available to be viewed.
The tournament uses 16 courts on each of these first two days for singles play. Of those 16, only 7 of those have television cameras. If you want to watch a certain player or match, the first thing you have to do is check what court he or she is playing on. Unless you go to Melbourne, you can’t see the match if it’s not on one of those courts (Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and Courts 2, 3, 6, and 8).
Of course, it’s also not just about planning what matches you want to watch. Tennis is so unpredictable and amazing matches can come out of anywhere. We should have the availability of turning to those at any time should a compelling match come up. Three of the six 5-setters on Day 1 weren’t televised. Three matches went past 6-6 in the final set of Day 1 (two men’s and one women’s), two of which were on untelevised courts, including Radek Stepanek’s defeat of Viktor Troicki and Fabio Fognini’s loss to Roberto Bautista Agut. I can’t speak for anyone else, but when I know that a match in a Slam is at 6-6 in the final set, I want to turn to it. People pay money for tennis packages so that they can watch every match. So why can’t the watch every match?
The real travesty in all of this, of course, is that the year is 2013. It’s so easy to have cameras on the courts. It doesn’t even have to be anything really special. Just put a camera there. This isn’t the 90s, where companies had only one channel and could only show one match at a time anyway. Cable could get you a second channel. This is the day of digital and satellite packages; with live streaming of every available court on the internet. Is it really so impossible to just put cameras on every court? No commentary is necessary; just have a camera at every match so fans can watch their favorite players or good developing matches.
The most disappointing thing of all is that it shows that the Slams refuse to learn from potential disasters. Can anyone imagine what would have happened if, in 2010, Isner/Mahut had been on untelevised Court 19 instead of Court 18? I’m sure there would have been some sort of mad scramble to get a camera crew and commentators to that court. But that’s not the point. It’s so easy nowadays to have everything televised. I just hope that it won’t have to take us fans missing out on a historic match before those in charge come to their senses.