STAR Sports to telecast 20 matches live in 2008
By News Agency of Kashmir
Jammu : ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s leading sports broadcaster, acquired the rights to broadcast ‘WTA Bangalore Open’ for a period of three years (2008-2010) from Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA).
The announcement of the Bangalore Open acquisition comes right after the broadcaster announced a 7 year renewal of the year’s first Grand Slam – the Australian Open. ESPN STAR Sports will showcase 20 matches live from the WTA Bangalore Open which starts on March 03, 2008.
This year the tournament will feature superstars from Women’s tennis like Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic for the first time on Indian soil as well as many other players from the world’s top 30 like Patty Schnyder, Agnes Szavay, Maria Kirilenko and Vera Zvonareva. The Bangalore Open is a Category II event in the WTA Calendar with total prize money of USD 600,000. The winner takes home an impressive sum of USD 95,000 and 300 WTA points.
This latest multi-year acquisition adds to a stellar list of the world’s top tennis events already airing on the ESPN STAR Sports network, including the Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Open, the ATP Masters Series, which comprises ten of the best tennis tournaments outside of the Grand Slams and the Hyundai Hopman Cup, the only ITF official international mixed teams competition.
RC Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd., speaking on the acquisition said, “We are extremely delighted to partner with KSLTA for this tennis extravaganza. This is in line with our overall strategy of constantly promoting the viewer ship of sports like Soccer, Tennis and Hockey in the country. With the strength of our network, I am confident more & more tennis fans will get to enjoy the best in the world of women’s tennis battling it out for top honours.”
Sunder Raju, Tournament Director and Hon. Secretary of KSLTA said, “KSLTA has always been in the forefront of bringing Quality into Tennis in India and in this step, we are happy to organize the first Tier II tennis event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in the country. The level of tennis will be very high with confirmation from the 3 top-10 players. The icing on the cake has come with ESPN STAR Sports becoming the broadcast partners of WTA Bangalore Open. I am sure that the eminent commentary panel coupled with telecast of matches on STAR Sports will draw a lot of public interest in the country.”
The commentary panel for the Bangalore Open includes eminent stars like Vijay Amritraj, Anand Amritraj and Lousie Pleming.