ITV4 to broadcast BlackRock Tennis Masters
ITV 4 · Tennis · 13 Nov 2008 · by: ITV
ITV Sport can today announce that it has agreed a new deal with IMG for the exclusive rights to broadcast coverage of the BlackRock Tennis Masters 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall.
Live coverage and highlights of the tournament will be broadcast on ITV4 and ITV.com every day throughout the event which takes place between Tuesday 2 and Sunday 7 December.
The tournament is the season finale to the BlackRock Tour of Champions, a year-long tour that makes its way across Europe and the world and pits eight former tennis champions against each other in order to earn ranking points.
In order to play in a BlackRock Tour of Champions event, the player must no longer be active on the ATP Tour and have either been ranked number one in the world, a singles finalist in a Grand Slam Championship or a singles player on a winning Davis Cup team.
The singles field has now been confirmed with Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg making their debuts, alongside, Goran Ivanisevic, John McEnroe, Cedric Pioline, Guy Forget and home wildcards Greg Rusedski and Jeremy Bates. The players are drawn into two groups of four participants and compete in a round-robin tournament from Tuesday through to Saturday. One player from each group will progress to the final on Sunday 7 December 2008 live on ITV4. In addition there will be an exhibition doubles event featuring Pat Cash, Henri Leconte, Mark Woodforde and the ever-popular Mansour Bahrami, among others.
Dave Fewings, ITV4 Controller said: “I’m thrilled that we are bringing the BlackRock Tennis Masters exclusively to ITV4 viewers. The event offers a great opportunity to watch some of the game’s great legends and is a brilliant addition to our growing portfolio of sport on ITV4.”
In addition to ITV4’s coverage, two matches will be broadcast exclusively live on ITV.com and via a new red button interactive service. The website will also feature behind the scenes video blogs and player interviews throughout the competition.
ITV’s coverage of the BlackRock Tennis Masters will be presented by Craig Doyle with commentary from John Lloyd and Simon Reed.
