NEW DELHI: Zee Sports, the first Indian private sports channel, today announced an exclusive three-year deal with International Tennis federation (ITF) for Davis Cup and Federation Cup.

Along with ITF, Zee Sports will be a key partner in expanding international coverage of men's and women team tennis events, showcasing exclusive action to Indian viewers. The rights also cover the away ties featuring the Indian team.

As part of the deal, according to an official statement from the sports channel, Zee Sports will show the World Group 2005 semi final matches starting 23 September between Slovak Republic and Argentina and Croatia vs Russia.

These games would have tennis stars like Russian Martin Safin, Argentinean stars Guillermo Coria, Slovak Republic's Dominik Hrbaty and Croatian Mario Ancic.
The statement, quoting Zee Sports COO Gary Lovejoy, said, "We are delighted to be associated with two of the biggest sporting events in the world. Fans in India can expect coverage of the Davis Cup and Federation Cup at a level previously unavailable in India."

According to Lovejoy, the agreement will allow the network to take full advantage of packaging and producing programming in its own style, providing context to viewers so that they can relate to it.

SportsCafe, Zee Sports' news programme, will present the daily highlights and analysis of the best moments of the matches.