Exclusive Wimbledon Coverage from ESPN Beginning July 1

·         “First Ball to Last Ball” Coverage from Every Court

·         ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+ and ESPN3 to Present More than 500 Matches, all Available on the ESPN App

·         145 Hours on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC

·         ESPN+ to Offer Action Daily, as well as all Four Days of Qualifying Exclusively Starting June 24

·         Gentlemen’s Storylines:  Can Big Three Continue to Hold Off Young Guns?

·         Ladies’ Storylines:  An 8th – and 24th – for Serena?  Can Kerber Defend her Title?  Yet Another New Major Winner?

·         “Cross Court Coverage” Again on ESPN, ESPN2 for Second Monday-Wednesday

·         ESPN3 Second Screen Experience for Semifinals, Championships plus Two Daily Press Conference Feeds

·         Doubles Championships:  Ladies’, Gentlemen’s Live on ESPN on July 13, Mixed on July 14

Every serve and every shot from The Championships, Wimbledon will be live exclusively across the ESPN networks, offering coverage from all 18 courts beginning Monday, July 1.  The coverage – first ball to last ball – includes 145 hours of action on TV plus more than 500 matches from the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London, all available for fans between ESPN+ and ESPN3 on the ESPN app.  The action will climax with the Ladies’ Championship and the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Doubles Championships on ESPN on Saturday, July 13, and the Gentlemen’s Championship on Sunday, July 14, followed by the Mixed Doubles Championship.

Starting Monday, June 24, and through Thursday, June 27, all four days of qualifying will stream live exclusively on ESPN+.  All-day action starts at 6 a.m. ET from one of the grass courts at the Bank of England Sports Centre in Roehampton, not far from Wimbledon.

Highlights:  All Day, Daily Coverage across TV, ESPN+ and ESPN3

• The first five weekdays, ESPN begins at 6 a.m. ET – a new earlier start time this year – for daylong coverage (scheduled to end at 4:30 p.m. except 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 4). The action also gets started live at 6 a.m. streaming on ESPN+ and ESPN3.
• The ESPN App will be the all-in-one streaming home for Wimbledon, with ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts and the matches streaming on ESPN+ and ESPN3. Combined, the app will stream more than 500 matches totaling 1,500 hours from all 18 courts (Centre, Courts 1-12, 14-18.), plus AELTC’s daily The Wimbledon Channel and two all-day feeds with press conferences from the media centre at the All England Club. Matches will also be available on demand afterwards.
• ESPN+ is also the home for on-demand viewing of annual official Wimbledon films as well as select championship and other memorable matches from previous years.
• On Saturday, July 6, ESPN begins at 7 a.m. with the one-hour Breakfast at Wimbledon before another day full of action.
• On the “middle Sunday,” July 7 – Wimbledon’s traditional day of rest – ABC will broadcast a three-hour review of the first week at 3 p.m. In addition, ABC will present encore presentations of the singles championships on the day they take place, July 13 and 14, at 3 p.m.
• “Cross Court Coverage” returns the first three days of the second week, with ESPN starting at 8 a.m. and focused on Centre Court all day while fans will enjoy a “grounds pass” with matches from No.1 Court and elsewhere on ESPN2 beginning at 6 a.m. on Monday, July 8, and at 8 a.m. on July 9 and 10.
• From Thursday, July 11, through the Championships, all the action is on ESPN, beginning each day with Breakfast at Wimbledon (7 a.m. on July 11-12 leading into the semifinals, 8 a.m. on July 13-14, previewing the Championships).
• Saturday, July 13, will feature the Ladies’ Singles Championship along with the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Doubles Championship on ESPN with the Gentlemen’s Championship and Mixed Doubles Championship on Sunday. All other division championships will be available on ESPN+ within the ESPN App.
• As in the past, ESPN3 will offer a second screen experience for the semifinals and Championships.

The ESPN Tennis Team, the best in television, at Wimbledon:

• Darren Cahill, who once reached the US Open semifinals and the Australian Open doubles finals and went on to coach fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, has worked for ESPN since 2007. In 2017-18 he coached Simona Halep to the No. 1 ranking a French Open title.
• Cliff Drysdale, who was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in July 2013, reached the US Open finals and is a two-time Wimbledon and French Open semifinalist. He has been with ESPN since its first tennis telecast in 1979.  Drysdale was a leader on the court – a top player for many years who was one of the first to use a two-hand backhand – and off the court, as the first president of the ATP.
• Chrissie Evert, a Hall of Famer who joined ESPN in 2011, her 18 Major titles include three at Wimbledon. She recorded the best career win-loss record in history, reached more Major singles finals than any man or woman (34), and reached the semis or better in 34 consecutive Majors (1971-83).  The AP Female Athlete of the Year four times, in 1976 she was the first woman to be the sole recipient of Sports Illustrated’s Sportswoman of the Year.
• Mary Joe Fernandez, an ESPN analyst since 2000, played in three Major singles finals and won two Majors in doubles, won a Gold Medal in doubles at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and a Bronze in singles in 1992.  She was the coach of the United States’ Fed Cup team for eight years, stepping down in 2016, and coached the 2012 and ’16 U.S. women’s Olympic team.
• Mardy Fish, a former longtime pro who once was No. 7 in the world, is an analyst. The Minnesota native won six events on tour, an Olympic Silver Medal in 2004 and reached the quarterfinals of three Majors – Australia, French and Wimbledon.  He was the top-ranked American man in 2011 when he reached a career high of No. 7.  He retired after the 2015 US Open.
• Chris Fowler – who joined ESPN in 1986, is the lead ESPN/ABC college football play caller and joined the ESPN tennis team in 2003 – will call matches, including the singles finals. He hosted College GameDay on football Saturdays 1990-2014, and has hosted World Cup soccer, college basketball including the Final Four, the X Games and Triple Crown horse racing.  Originally, he was the first host of Scholastic Sports America and later was a SportsCenter
• Brad Gilbert, whose flair and unique nicknames for players has enlivened ESPN’s tennis telecasts since 2004, parlayed his playing career – peaking at a No. 4 ranking and once reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open and at Wimbledon – into coaching Andre Agassi (six Major titles with Brad), Andy Roddick (US Open victory) and Andy Murray.
• Jason Goodall will serve as a studio and match analyst. A one-time standout among Juniors in Britain whose career was ended by injury at 21, he later coached ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez and Pam Shriver and the British Fed Cup team.
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands will split time between playing and visiting as guest analyst. The 33-year old from Minnesota has captured five Major doubles titles, plus three Major mixed doubles crowns (including at the 2018 US Open after returning to action following a horrific knee injury in 2017) and an Olympic Gold Medal in mixed doubles in 2016.
• John McEnroe won seven Major singles titles, including three at Wimbledon, during his storied career, which included 10 more Major crowns in doubles or mixed doubles. He also led the U.S. to four Davis Cup titles and won the NCAA’s while attending Stanford.  He has worked for ESPN since 2009.
• Patrick McEnroe, who has worked for ESPN since 1995, was a three-time singles All-American at Stanford – where the team won NCAA titles in 1986 and 1988 – and served as General Manager, USTA Elite Player Development from 2008 – 2015.  He won the 1992 French Open doubles title and reached the 1991 Australian Open semifinals in singles.  He served as the U.S. Davis Cup captain 2001-2010; in 2007 the team won its first championship since 1995.
• Chris McKendry returns as host, a role she has filled at all the Majors for ESPN. She joined ESPN in 1996 as a SportsCenter anchor, and later hosted the Little League World Series and X Games.  As of Spring 2016, she focuses on tennis.  She attended Drexel University on a tennis scholarship.
• Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ coach since 2012, helped her to unprecedented success deep into her mid-30s – 10 Major titles, an Olympic Gold Medal and a stranglehold on the WTA No. 1 ranking. A longtime coach, including great results over seven years with Marcos Baghdatis, he will serve as an analyst.
• Tom Rinaldi will serve as a reporter and will call matches. Since 2003, his features and interviews have graced a wide variety of ESPN programs – including SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, E:60 and event telecasts such as Wimbledon, golf’s Majors, college football and more – winning numerous awards.
• Pam Shriver, who started working for ESPN in 1990, long before her Hall of Fame career ended, played in the US Open finals at age 16 (losing to Evert) and three times in the Wimbledon semifinals. She won 21 Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles (another in Mixed) including five at Wimbledon plus a Gold Medal in doubles at the 1988 Olympics.
• Rennae Stubbs, who enjoyed a long career in doubles – winning six Majors: four in women’s and two in mixed, representing Australia at four Olympic Games and for 17 years in Fed Cup, will be an analyst. She’s worked for ESPN for many years, and for NBC at the Olympics and for Tennis Channel.

Surveying the Fields

• They just won’t go away. The Big Three in the gentlemen’s draw – No. 1-ranked and defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, No. 2 and recent French Open winner Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Roger Federer, the leader with 20 Major titles including a Wimbledon-best eight – have shared the last 10 Major crowns and 32 of the most recent 38.  Including two Wimbledon victories by Andy Murray (who, by the way, is entered in doubles as he recovers from surgery), those four have taken the Wimbledon trophy every year starting in 2003.  Will this stranglehold be broken?
• Getting closer and closer to breaking through at a Major are No. 4-6: Dominic Thiem (25), Alexander Zverev (22) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (20). Eventually, the generational page will turn.
• It’s quite the opposite on the ladies’ side where nine different women have captured the last 10 Majors (only Naomi Osaka was able to win a second).
• In that span, a number of women have won their first Major, including Caroline Wozniacki, Osaka, Simona Halep, Sloane Stephens, Jelena Ostapenko and new No. 1 Ash Barty at the recent French Open. Will any of these players back up their first with a second?
• Former Major winners Petra Kvitova, American Sloane Stephens, Garbiñe Muguruza, Victoria Azarenka and defending champ Angelique Kerber have to be considered.  So do standouts who are yet to take a big trophy:  Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova, Kiki Bertens and American Madison Keys.
• Then there’s Serena Williams. If she is the last woman standing, it would be her first title as a mom and her 24th Major title, tying the record held by Australia’s Margaret Court. And don’t dismiss her sister Venus, a five time champion on the grass courts at the All England Club.

MORE TV & DIGITAL MEDIA, AT HOME AND ABROAD

ESPN.com will have its usual exhaustive coverage with reporters on site providing previews, reviews, the latest news and in-depth analysis.  In addition, ESPN’s live coverage will be available via live streaming.  espnW.com will also be on hand with features and profiles.                                                          

ESPNDeportes.com will provide live scores and draws, in depth news and coverage of Latin American players, columns, blogs, live chats, video, highlights and news.

In a special presentation of ESPN Audio on SiriusXM, AELTC’s daily Wimbledon Channel Radio will be available on Sirius channel 138, XM channel 207 and Online channel 965. 

For the 12th year, ESPN will provide multi-screen coverage with commentary of five matches in addition to ESPN program through the second Monday of the Championships, on AT&T DirecTV.  Fans will also receive interviews, features, press conferences and studio analysis from the All England Club.  Commentators for outer court matches will be provided by AELTC.  In addition to the video offerings, DirecTV viewers can access results, schedules, draws and other interactive features through the “Red Button” application on their remote. In total, ESPN will provide more than 350 hours of coverage through this unique application.

ESPN Classic is presenting an unprecedented marathon covering all or most of 12 days of memorable Wimbledon matches that started today, Monday, June 24, at 5 a.m.  The marathon takes breaks during live Wimbledon coverage July 1-6 and concludes Monday, July 7, at 6 a.m.  The matches are primarily championships and go back as far as the 1975 Gentlemen’s Championship (Arthur Ashe vs. Jimmy Connors) on Friday, July 5 at 8 p.m.

There will also be great matches from the past on other ESPN networks during the tournament, generally early morning before play begins for the day.  The first – the only one not a championship match – is the epic 2010 first-round duel of attrition between American John Isner and Nicolus Mahut.  Played over three days, the match lasted 11 hours and five with a final score of 6–4, 3–6, 6–7^(7–9), 7–6^(7–3), 70–68, the longest tennis match in history measured both by time and number of games. The final set alone was longer than the previous longest match.  The 9-hour telecast will begin late Saturday at midnight (9 p.m. PT) on ESPNEWS, leading into the first day of play.

ESPN International, the home of tennis’ Grand Slam events in Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean, will provide live Wimbledon coverage to more than 44 countries and 60 million homes via its television and digital platforms throughout the region.  ESPN’s Spanish language pan-regional networks will offer more than 130 hours of live tennis, focused on the top-ranked players in the world, while the regional networks will focus on players of local interest. In addition to the live coverage, ESPN will offer two daily encore presentations featuring the best matches of the day. ESPN’s Spanish-language commentator team will include tennis experts Luis Alfredo Alvarez and Eduardo Varela calling matches with analysts Javier Frana and Jose Luis Clerc, along with reporter Nicolas Pereira.  ESPN’s Caribbean networks will provide simulcast coverage and will broadcast over 120 hours of live Wimbledon content.

ESPN Play – ESPN International’s Spanish- and English-language broadband service available in Latin America and the Caribbean – will offer 1,500 hours of live coverage from up to all 18 courts simultaneously. ESPN Play will also offer qualifying matches, June 24-27 as well as the Wimbledon Surround three-screen service for the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Semifinals and Championships.

ESPN and Tennis

Tennis has been part of ESPN since its first week on the air, providing numerous memorable moments from around the world, but it has never been as important as today, with the unprecedented position of presenting three of the sport’s Major events from start to finish (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open, with exclusivity at the latter two).

ESPN & WIMBLEDON 2019

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