US Open

Us Open

The US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final tennis major comprising the Grand Slam each year. It starts on the last Monday in August, lasting for two weeks into September. The first tournament was in 1881. Now, more then 710.000 people are attending this tournament every year, this makes it the biggest event.

The main tournament consist of five event championships:

-       Men’s Single

-       Women’s Single

-       Men’s Double

-       Women’s Double

-       Mixed Double

There are also additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players.

Media

First of all, the website of US Open allows viewing of live streaming, but does not allow watching video on demand. The website also has live radio.

The tournament has different TV rights for every country:

-       United States: ESPN and Tennis Channel

-       Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, UK, and Germany: Eurosport (some countries have also another channel)

-       Brazil: SporTV and ESPN

Sponsors

US Open has around 25 sponsors. These are the most important:

Players

Novak Djokovic was the winner of Men’s Singles in 2015. It was his tenth Major Singles title and his second title at the US Open. He earned with his championship around  $1.900.000.

Flacia Penetta was the winner of the Women’s Single in 2015. It was her first Major Singles title.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut won the Men’s Double in 2015. It was their first Jajor Men’s Double title. Price money for Doubles is $420.000.

Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won the Women’s Double in 2015. Marina also won the Mixed Double with Leander Peas. The price money for Mixed Doubles is $150.000.

Stadium

The stadium of US Open is the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. The stadium is built in 1997. With more than 22.000 seats, 90 skyboxes, five restaurants and two floors specially for the players, makes this the biggest tennis stadium of the world. It cost more then 250 million dollar to build it.

Australian Open

General Background

The Australian Open is one of the 4 Grand Slams played during the year. First held in 1905, the tournament is chronologically the first of the four GS - the other three being the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

The Australian Open typically has high attendance, second only to the US Open.

Media

The Australian Open is globally broadcasted on television and online:

In EUROPE the tournament is broadcasted on Eurosport.

In the UNITED STATES the tournament is broadcasted on ESPN2, ESPN3 and the Tennis Channel.

In AUSTRALIA the tournament is broadcasted by Seven Network since 1973. Between 2003 and 2009 it was co - broadcasted by Fox Sports.

In the rest of Asia - Pacific each country has a different broadcast contract that changes every year.

In CENTRAL AND LATIN AMERICA the tournament is broadcasted on ESPN INTERNATIONAL.

Sponsors

Major Sponsor --> KIA

Associate Sponsors --> ANZ, Rolex & Jacob's Creek

Official Partners --> Emirates, Herald Sun, Heineken, Hisense, IBM, K&L Gates, Lacoste, Maxxis, Mediabank, Optus, Melbourne, City of Melbourne, Powerade, Tad, Toshiba, Wilson, Woolworths and Yonex.

Stadium

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  The Australian Open is held in the Melbourne Park since 1988. It's a huge sport venue complex situated in Victoria, Australia.
  
  

Recent attendances

2015 – 703,899

2014 – 643,280

2013 – 684,457

2012 – 686,006

2011 – 651,127

Players

Last year's Champions

Event	Champion	Runner-up	Score
2015 Men's Singles	Novak Djokovic	Andy Murray	7–6(7–5), 6–7(4–7), 6–3, 6–0
2015 Women's Singles	Serena Williams	Maria Sharapova	6–3, 7–6(7–5)
2015 Men's Doubles	Simone Bolelli  Fabio Fognini	Pierre-Hugues Herbert  Nicolas Mahut	6–4, 6–4
2015 Women's Doubles	Bethanie Mattek-Sands  Lucie Šafářová	Chan Yung-jan  Zheng Jie	6–4, 7–6(7–5)
2015 Mixed Doubles	Martina Hingis  Leander Paes	Kristina Mladenovic  Daniel Nestor	6–4, 6–3

Wimbledon

General Background

Wimbledon is known as the most prestigious and oldest tennis tournament worldwide. It is held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, and has been held here since 1877. It is the only major tournament that is still played on grass.

The tournament’s duration lasts two weeks, from late June, up until early July and is the third annual Grand Slam event of the tennis calendar.

Wimbledon consists of five main events, five junior events and five invitation events.

These five major events, include

·      Gentlemen’s singles

·      Ladies’ Singles

·      Ladies’ Doubles

·      Gentlemen’s Doubles

·      Mixed Doubles

Media

The host broadcaster for Wimbledon is the BBC, this is also the UK rights holder, acting for over 40 other international networks, due to this is has become the largest annual broadcast operation across the globe.

Fees are paid by international broadcasters, these are

Currently Wimbledon has nine courts of live television coverage, and then seven after the first week, this is more than any of the other Grand Slams. Over 2,500 broadcasters work in the Broadcast Centre for the Wimbledon Championships.

• Wimbledon was televised for the first time in 1937, when the BBC from Centre Court for transmitted matches up to half an hour each day of the meeting.

• In 1967, Wimbledon provided the first ever colour broadcast in Britain. More than 80 broadcast organisations are on site.

• Approximately 2500 broadcasters work in the Broadcast Centre.

• Nine courts have live television coverage (seven after week one), more than any other Grand Slam.

• Host broadcaster BBC uses nearly 100 cameras around the grounds during The Championships.

• There are positions for 120 commentators on Centre Court alone.

(Wimbledon.com, 2015)

Sponsors

Wimbledon has always strove to retain the unique image and character of the Championships and has managed to do this successfully over the many years of it’s existence by developing long-term mutually beneficial Official Supplier agreements. These official suppliers provide goods and services, which are both important for the setting up and staging of The Championships.

Wimbledon’s current sponsors can be seen below; with the dates they started their long-term agreement.

·      Slazenger - Official Ball (1902)

·      Robinsons - Official Soft Drink (1935)

·      IBM - Official Information Technology (1990)

·      Hertz  - Official Transport Supplier (1995)

·      Lanson - Official Champagne (2001)

·      Ralph Lauren - Official Outfitter (2006)

·      HSBC - Official Bank (2007)

·      Evian - Official Water (2008)

·      Jacob's Creek - Official Wine (2011)

·      Lavazza - Official Coffee (2011)

·      Stella Artois - Official Beer (2014)

·      Jaguar Land Rover - Official Car (2015)

(Wimbledon.com, 2015)

Stadium

Wimbledon Centre Count is considered the world’s most famous tennis court situated in Wimbledon, London, UK. It incorporates the clubhouse of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

It’s capacity holds 15,000 people, and it is a grass court.

Wimbledon’s only regular use for play is during the two weeks a year that the Championships take place. The Centre Court also has a premier box for use by the British Royal Family, and other distinguished guests

Wimbledon had a retractable roof installed in 2009; this enables games to continue during rain and into the night up until 11pm.

(Bloomberg.com, 2014)

Web Sources

Bloomberg.com, (2014). Wimbledon Targets U.S. Market to Fund $168 Million Expansion. [online] Available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-30/wimbledon-targets-us-market-to-fund-168-million-expansion-1 [Accessed 31 Oct. 2015].

Wimbledon.com, (2015). Official Suppliers. [online] Available at: http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/atoz/official_suppliers.html [Accessed 30 Oct. 2015].

Wimbledon.com, (2015). TV coverage and schedules. [online] Available at: http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/atoz/tv_schedules.html [Accessed 30 Oct. 2015].