LOS ANGELES, April 11, 2024 – Tennis Channel will have complete live coverage of the Billie Jean King Cup qualifier this weekend between the United States and Belgium April 12-13. The broadcast gets underway Friday, April 12, at 6 p.m. ET and again Saturday, April 13, at 2 p.m. ET. The event will be held at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, with the winner advancing to the tournament finals in Seville, Spain, in November.
This will mark the debut of Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport as captain of the American team, for which she appeared 20 times. Davenport has been a Tennis Channel analyst since 2008.
The network will show four hours of live competition both days of the event this weekend. The United States and Belgium will play two singles matches Friday, and two singles and a doubles match Saturday, with each worth one point. The first country to three points gets to move on. Held annually, Billie Jean King Cup consists of the world’s best women’s tennis players representing their countries in a year-long team tournament.
Former players CoCo Vandeweghe (@CocoVandey) and Mark Petchey (@_markpetchey) will be in the television booth for Tennis Channel. As a player, analyst Vandeweghe led the United States to its record-extending 18th cup in 2017, the nation’s most recent title. Vandeweghe went undefeated in singles and doubles for the squad that year, including three matches in the finals. Announcer Petchey appeared for Britain in Davis Cup, the men’s equivalent international-team tournament, from 1991-1997 and posted a 5-2 doubles record for the team during that time.
T2, Tennis Channel’s second network, will have live coverage of two other Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matchups this weekend. Poland-Switzerland gets underway Friday, April 12, at 8 a.m. ET, with Romania-Ukraine following at 1 p.m. ET. Saturday, April 13, Poland-Switzerland resume at 7 a.m. ET, followed immediately by Romania-Ukraine. Subscription service Tennis Channel Plus will have live coverage of competition between Brazil-Germany, Britain-France and Japan-Kazakhstan, as well as encore replays of these and the matches on Tennis Channel and TC. Billie Jean King Cup qualifier schedules can be found at www.billiejeankingcup.com.
Davenport amassed a dominant 33-3 record for the United States as a player, going 26-3 in singles and 7-0 in doubles. She played with the team from 1993-2000 and 2002, 2005 and 2008. As captain, she manages a roster that includes Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Emma Navarro, Taylor Townsend and Caroline Dolehide.
Pegula is currently ranked No. 5 in the world in singles and has made deep runs at major events in recent years. Keys reached the final at the 2018 US Open, while Navarro has leaped 100 places in the WTA rankings in the past year, up to No. 21 in singles today. Townsend is ranked No. 13 in doubles. After appearing in 2021, Dolehide is in her second Billie Jean King Cup as a member of the United States’ team. Belgium is captained by Wim Fissette and includes Sofia Costoulas, Hanne Vandewinkel, Marie Benoit and Kimberley Zimmermann.
Tennis Channel’s international channels will carry Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers this weekend as well. Austria, Germany and Switzerland will offer Germany-Brazil, while India, Spain and the United Kingdom will show Britain-France.
Tennis Channel (www.tennischannel.com) and its sibling network T2, which are owned by Sinclair, Inc., are the only television-based multiplatform destinations dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. The networks have the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television in one of the world’s most voluminous sports, with multiple men’s and women’s tournaments and singles, doubles and mixed competition throughout the year. Tennis Channel and T2 have rights at the four majors – US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open) and Australian Open – and are the exclusive U.S. homes of all men’s ATP World Tour and women’s WTA Tour competitions, Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, United Cup, and Laver Cup. Direct-to-consumer streaming service Tennis Channel Plus is available to everyone in the United States and allows subscribers to select from another 4,500 live and on-demand matches and award-winning content from short-form to films throughout the tennis season. Tennis Channel International brings live competition and network content to markets in Europe and Asia via digital subscription and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels. Additional platform www.tennis.com is the largest digital outlet dedicated to the sport. Tennis Channel also manages a network of close to 20 podcasts and FAST channel Pickleballtv, a partnership with the Professional Pickleball Association.
About Sinclair, Inc.
Sinclair, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) is a diversified media company and a leading provider of local news and sports. The Company owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets affiliated with all the major broadcast networks; owns Tennis Channel and multicast networks Comet, CHARGE!, TBD and The Nest; and owns and provides services to 21 regional sports network brands. Sinclair’s content is delivered via multiple platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program distributors, and the nation’s largest streaming aggregator of local news content, NewsON. The Company regularly uses its website as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at www.sbgi.net.
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For further information:
Eric Abner, Tennis Channel, 310-314-9445, eabner@tennischannel.com, @TennisChannelPR