FLORIDA: The WTA Tour and ESPN have reached a multi-year agreement for the cable network to broadcast the season ending WTA Tour Championships presented by Porsche.
In India viewers can catch WTA action on Ten Sports. In the US the season ending finale to the WTA Tour takes place from 5-10 November at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In the US this will be televised everyday on ESPN2.
As part of the new extended deal, ESPN2 will provide at least 16 hours of coverage from all six days of the WTA Tour Championships, including at least 10 hours of live coverage. The network's featured team of Cliff Drysdale, Mary Joe Fernandez and Pam Shriver will work the broadcast booth.
An official release informs that this year ESPN2, which reaches more than 85 million homes, covered 10 prominent tournaments on the WTA Tour calendar, including three Grand Slam events, the Pacific Life Open and the Nasdaq-100 Open.
This year's WTA Tour Championships will feature a new format involving an eight-player round-robin singles draw and a four-team single elimination doubles draw. The world's top eight singles players and top four doubles teams will battle for a $3 million purse, with the singles winner receiving a record-tying $1 million in prize money.
Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Serena Williams have already qualified for the women's singles event. Henin-Hardenne, the reigning US Open and French Open singles champion, leads the current Porsche Race to the Championships standings, followed closely by the top-ranked Clijsters who has still to win a Grand Slam and the third-ranked Williams, who is a six-time Grand Slam champion.
In the US the ESPN networks claim to televise