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NEW YORK --The prelude to the U.S. Open is set. The U.S. Tennis Association unveiled plans for The US Open
Series on Tuesday, 10 summer hard-court tournaments leading up to
the year's final Grand Slam tournament. The package consists of six ATP Tour and four WTA Tour
tournaments in the United States and Canada, with nationally
televised semifinals and finals each week in a consistent time
slot. "This series delivers the regular season that tennis is
yearning for," ESPN VP of programming Mark Shapiro said. Arlen Kantarian, the USTA chief executive for pro tennis, said
at a news conference that the package creates "a series of
tournaments that will unify the North American season under a
consistent television platform and marketing platform." The series stands to be profitable to the players, as well. The
top man and woman over the course of The US Open Series will
receive a bonus equal to 50 percent of their U.S. Open earnings in
2004. The bonus will be 100 percent in 2005. The series starts July 12 with the men's tournament in Los
Angeles and the women's tournament at Stanford. Also participating in 2004: ATP events at Indianapolis (starting
July 19), Toronto (July 26), Cincinnati (Aug. 2), Washington, D.C.
(Aug. 16) and Long Island (Aug. 23), and WTA events at Los Angeles
(July 19), Montreal (Aug. 2) and New Haven (Aug. 23). The series
could expand to include a women's tournament in San Diego on July
26. The U.S. Open starts Aug. 30. ESPN will carry 92 hours of live tennis coverage during the
eight-week period. CBS will air matches from at least two
tournaments and NBC will have one. "Tennis really needs to have some consistency in programming,
some simplification of the major events around the Grand Slam
events, and a unified and aggressive promotional campaign," CBS
president Sean McManus said. "In years to come, when you look back
at the history of tennis, I think today will be looked at as an
awfully significant day."
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