By Alberto Amalfi | @Tennis_Now | Monday, March 4, 2024
A pair of massive servers will add sting to Tennis Channel's BNP Paribas Open coverage.
Recently retired American stars John Isner and CoCo Vandeweghe will join Tennis Channel's on-air team at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., March 6-19.
The big servers, who ranked in the Top 10 in singles and spent much of their careers among the country’s best tennis representatives, will offer match commentary during the Masters 1000 event.
More: Richard Evans Q&A
Tennis Channel’s exclusive coverage of the tournament and the Miami Open – the famed Sunshine Double – will again dominate the month, with 25 days of matches March 6-31st.
Indian Wells coverage begins Wednesday, March 6, at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
“It’s always one of the most exciting times of year when the entire tennis world comes to America in March for the BNP Paribas Open,” said Isner. “I’m looking forward to interacting with the Tennis Channel team and our viewers during the tournament.”
Isner, who was ranked as high as No. 8 in singles and 14 in doubles, won 16 ATP Tour titles and finished the season as the top-ranked American men’s player eight times. He won the 2018 Miami Open singles championship and served a record 14,411 aces in ATP Tour and major singles matches. He made headlines outside of tennis circles when he won the longest match on record, a first-round Wimbledon contest that lasted more than 11 hours across three days, finally claimed at 70-68 in the fifth set. Isner fell to Roger Federer in the first Miami Open final staged at the tournament's Hard Rock Stadium home.
Vandeweghe was a US Open doubles champion in 2018 and singles semifinalist at the Australian Open and US Open the year prior. Her top ranking was No. 9 in singles and, like Isner, 14 in doubles. She won six singles and doubles crowns as a player, and notably left her mark on the 2017 U.S. Fed Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup) championship. She won every singles and doubles match she played for the team that year, including three in the finals that gave the Americans their first title in 17 years. Vandeweghe has a career Sunshine Double on her resume as well, winning doubles titles in Indian Wells in 2016 and Miami in 2018.
“I can’t wait to get started with Tennis Channel during the BNP Paribas Open,” said Vandeweghe. “This is an amazing time in our sport, with so many rising stars on the men’s and women’s sides, and I love that it’s time for everyone to be in Southern California again.”
Tennis Channel, its second network T2 and its streaming-service Tennis Channel Plus will again turn March into “Match Madness” for aficionados of the sport in 2024. With stunning upsets, busted brackets and the best men’s and women’s players in the world chasing championships in Southern California and South Florida, the network’s platforms will become the round-the-clock home of each event for the next month.
More than 550 total hours of coverage are planned this year, from first ball opening day to trophy ceremonies on championship Sunday. Typical lineups include 12-hour blocks of live competition, followed by all-night encore replays.
Coverage at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden will begin at 1 p.m. ET most days, with lead-in show Tennis Channel Live at the BNP Paribas Open. Matches start at 2 p.m. ET. Tennis Channel plans to show more than 110 hours of live television this year, and another 150-plus hours of encores, for more than 250 total hours dedicated to the tournament.
On Saturday, March 17, at 2 p.m. ET, the women’s singles final will take place, followed by the men’s singles championship at 5 p.m. ET.
A similar schedule is in place for Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. The key difference is in Tennis Channel Live at the Miami Open, which will take place at the end of live coverage most days.
Matches usually get underway at 11 a.m. ET, and Tennis Channel expects to deliver close to 300 hours of coverage: more than 120 live and 170 encore. The women’s singles final is set for 3 p.m. ET Saturday, March 30, with the men’s following at the same time the next afternoon.
T2 will carry live matches most days, competition that will not appear on Tennis Channel. T2 is available to everyone in the United States for free on various platforms, including Amazon Freevee, Roku and Samsung TV+. Tennis Channel Plus, also available to everyone in the country, will carry live matches during the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open and give viewers the opportunity to select from multiple courts.
Tennis Channel On-Air Talent for Indian Wells
Isner and Vandeweghe will join an on-air team with award-winning sportscasters and former professional tennis champions, including Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Jim Courier, Lindsay Davenport and Andy Roddick. Navratilova won titles at both events, taking singles crowns in Southern California in 1990-1991 and South Florida in 1985. That year in Miami she also won the doubles and mixed-doubles competition.
Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport