ESPN STAR Sports Secures Rights To New Format ATP Tour Tennis. Full coverage of The New Masters Series and Masters Cup on ESPN. Over 150 Matchdays of Tennis Events on ESPN STAR Sports
February 18, 2000, Singapore . . . ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s leading sports broadcaster, announced an exclusive cable and satellite deal with the ATP Tour for the new Tennis Masters Series, previously known as the Mercedes Super 9 Series and the Tennis Masters Cup for the 2000 though 2002 seasons. Programmes will be aired on the ESPN networks: ESPN Asia, ESPN India and ESPN Taiwan. ESPN will have coverage of all nine events from the preliminary rounds through to the finals, beginning with Indian Wells March 14 to 20.
ATP’s New Strategy
At the heart of ATP’s new strategy to make men’s professional tennis more competitive and entertaining is the Tennis Masters Series and the Tennis Masters Cup. The Tennis Masters Series, is second only to the four Grand Slams in prestige. The series is played in the most important tennis venues in North America and Europe.
The ATP Champions Race is on as players will garner points from the new Tennis Masters Series, five other international series and the four Grand Slams. This will culminate with the Tennis Masters Cup which is the combination of the old ATP Tour World Championship and the Grand Slam Cup. The Tennis Masters Cup will showcase the year’s top eight players in the ATP Champions Race.
New Points System
Making the season and the Champions Race even more exciting, the ATP has introduced a new points system that will ensure that the world’s best players play in all Tennis Masters Series events, earning their rights to play in the Tennis Master Cup.
Under the new ATP Champions Race, points will be awarded for 18 tournaments, the four Grand Slams, the nine Tennis Masters Series tournaments and five other International Series.
The winner of each Tennis Masters Series event will earn 100 ranking points, second only to a Grand Slam winner’s 200 points. The new system will determine the final eight players who battle for the number one spot at the year-end finale Tennis Masters Cup. If players skip any Master Series event they will have vital points deducted from their Champions Race total making qualification for the Masters Cup difficult.
As every player will start the year with zero points and no player in the race can afford to miss a tournament, the Tennis Masters Series will be fiercely competitive from season start to season end. And that means viewers can enjoy all the serves and volleys from top players such as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis on ESPN.
More Tennis on ESPN & STAR Sports Than Any Other
Together the Tennis Masters Series and Tennis Masters Cup will further consolidate ESPN STAR Sports’ comprehensive coverage of professional tennis, which already includes two Grand Slams (Wimbledon and US Open), the ATP Tour World Series and women’s WTA Tour tennis. In total, the six ESPN and STAR Sports networks will deliver over 150 matchdays of the best tennis coverage available on television throughout Asia.
The coverage of ATP Tour also include a one-hour highlights program after each Masters Series event and 39 episodes of the ATP Tour Magazine Show at 7pm every Friday on ESPN.
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world’s leading cable and satellite broadcasters, ESPN Inc. and STAR TV. We are Asia’s leading sports broadcaster that reaches over 46 million households for ESPN and 46 million households for STAR Sports (as at November, 1999). Our networks bring the world’s premier live sports and leading regional events to viewers 24 hours a day. The ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group, formerly Sports Corporation, stages, manages and promotes sporting events around Asia.
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For the latest schedules and program information on ESPN STAR Sports, catch us on the net at www.espnstar.com
For further information, please contact:
Jessica Lee, Director, Corporate Communications, ESPN STAR Sports
e-mail: leej@espnstar.com Tel : (65) 488 6132
OR, Edward Yip, Program Publicity Manager, ESPN STAR Sports
e-mail: yipe@espnstar.com Tel : (65) 488 6422
ATP Tour Tennis Masters Series 2000
March 13-19 Indian Wells, USA
March 23- April 2 Miami, USA
April 17-23 Monte Carlo, Monaco
May 8-14 Rome, Italy
May 15-21 Hamburg, Germany
July 31- August 6 Toronto, Canada
August 7-13 Cincinnati, USA
October 30- November 5 Stuttgart, Germany
November 13-19 Paris, France
November 27- December 3 Masters Cup, Lisbon, Portugal