LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2022 – Tennis Channel will add two former top-ranked tennis champions to an already star-laden roster during its 16th year of French Open coverage, set for May 22-June 5. Hall of Famer Pam Shriver (@PHShriver), who set records and reached No. 1 in doubles during her playing days, and 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki), who was the No. 1 singles player in hers, will be in Paris for the network for the first time. Matches at the 126th edition of the sport’s most prestigious clay-court event will run all day on Tennis Channel again this year, with additional competition live and on-demand on streaming service Tennis Channel Plus, select Bally Sports regional networks around the country, and new Samsung TV Plus channel T2 – where they will be available for free.
Shriver will call matches for the network during the tournament. One of the most dominant doubles players of all time, she won 21 major doubles titles, including four at the French Open with current Tennis Channel analyst Martina Navratilova, and the 1987 French Open mixed-doubles championship. In addition to reaching the top of the doubles rankings she was an accomplished singles player, at one point ranked No. 3 in the world. She entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002.
“I have so many great memories of Roland Garros during my career, especially winning all four doubles tournaments I played with Martina there and capturing my only major mixed-doubles title,” said Shriver. “I can’t wait to be in Paris with the entire Tennis Channel team this year.”
In March, Wozniacki appeared on Tennis Channel as an analyst for the first time during the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open, and will resume those duties in Paris this spring. The first person from Denmark to win a major singles title, Wozniacki is also the first woman from any Scandinavian country to reach the top of the singles rankings. She won 30 singles tournaments and two doubles events during her career.
There have never been so many outlets for fans to watch the best players in the world compete at Roland Garros (commonly called the French Open). As it has done since first airing the tournament in 2007, Tennis Channel will essentially become a “Roland Garros Channel” during the 15-day event, with live matches from the start of play in the morning through the night sessions on most evenings. Once the final match has concluded, the network will show encore replays throughout the late night and early morning up to the start of the next day’s play. The typical schedule sees matches underway at 5 a.m. ET until the late afternoon ET, when encores begin (complete live schedule below). Tennis Channel plans to show more than 140 live hours of matches from this year’s French Open, and another 185 hours of encores, dedicating 325 total hours to competition.
Live coverage runs from the first day of play Sunday, May 22 through the women’s doubles final on the final day of the event, Sunday, June 5. This includes the mixed-doubles and women’s singles semifinals Thursday, June 2; the men’s singles semifinals Friday, June 3; and the juniors singles finals Saturday, June 4. Tennis Channel will also show same-day encores of the men’s and women’s singles and doubles finals during championship weekend.
New this year are daily, live matches on T2, the network’s free channel on Samsung TV Plus. Just two months old, the youth-oriented channel differs from Tennis Channel in tone, programming and look. Live matches on T2 run simultaneously with coverage on the traditional television network but are different competitions and different players, giving viewers the opportunity to toggle between two matches on air at the same time. For the French Open, T2 plans to show approximately 80 hours of live matches from Sunday, May 22, through Friday, June 3. The channel will be live from 5 a.m.-12 p.m. ET the first nine days of the tournament. Beginning Tuesday, May 31, matches will be live from 5 a.m.-9 a.m. ET for four days.
T2 is available to all Samsung TV Plus users with 2017-or-newer Samsung smart TVs and Galaxy mobile devices.
Throughout the United States, Bally Sports regional networks – sister networks of Tennis Channel in the Sinclair Broadcast Group family – will have the opportunity to provide another 36 hours of live matches from Roland Garros this year. As with T2, matches will be simultaneous with other play taking place on Tennis Channel, allowing viewers to choose which match or network to follow. Each of the first nine days of the event will see a four-hour block on select Bally Sports networks, either from 7 a.m.-11 a.m. ET or 8 a.m.-12 p.m. ET. The schedule is as follows: Sunday, May 22-Monday, May 23, and Saturday, May 28 – 8 a.m-12 p.m. ET; Tuesday, May 24-Friday, May 27, and Sunday, May 29-Monday, May 30 – 7 a.m.-11 p.m. ET.
Combined, Tennis Channel, T2, Bally Sport regional networks and Tennis Channel Plus will make more than 1,750 hours of live French Open competition available to tennis fans this year, with more than 2,000 match hours overall when encores are added. On top of this, this week Tennis Channel is including daily, live Roland Garros qualifying matches in its Courtside coverage of other clay-court events in Europe in Africa. More than 220 qualifiers will be available live on Tennis Channel Plus as well, more than 400 more hours of tennis from the City of Light.
Shriver and Wozniacki join an on-air team of Hall of Famers, major champions and award-winning sportscasters. Hall of Famer Navratilova (@Martina) has been a Tennis Channel analyst since its first French Open in 2007. As a player she won 11 titles at Roland Garros: two singles (1982, 1984), seven doubles (1975, 1982, 1984-1988) and two mixed doubles (1991-1992). Analysts Jim Courier and Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76) are also in the Hall of Fame. Courier won back-to-back singles championships in Paris in 1991-1992, and Davenport captured the 1996 mixed-doubles crown.
Analyst Paul Annacone (@paul_annacone) is no stranger to major championships, having won the 1985 Australian Open doubles title. The same is true for Mark Knowles (@Knowlzee10s), who won three major doubles championships, including the 2007 French Open. Chanda Rubin (@Chanda_Rubin) won the 1996 Australian Open doubles tournament, and will offer her commentary on the network’s Tennis Channel Live tournament desk.
Like Shriver, former players Leif Shiras (@leifshiras) and Jason Goodall will call matches for Tennis Channel during Roland Garros. They will be part of a decorated announcement team that includes Emmy Award winners Ted Robinson (@tedjrobinson) and Brett Haber (@BrettHaber).
Steve Weissman (@Steve_Weissman), who has also been honored for his sportscasting skills, will again host the Tennis Channel Live tournament desk, working with Rubin and reporter and essayist Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim). Wertheim is an author, Sports Illustrated editor and CBS’ 60 Minutes correspondent.
No website or app provides as much tennis content as the Tennis.com website and app. During the French Open fans will be able to watch live matches directly linked to overall scoreboards, follow win-prediction percentages, view estimated start times for all matches, get the latest news, and stay on top of stories and content tailored around their favorite players. Both platforms are free to everyone in the world, with the app available on iOS and Android systems. There is no more comprehensive vehicle for keeping track of everything that goes on at Roland Garros.
Tennis Channel Plus and its access to more than 1,500 hours of competition and every match live or on-demand at this year’s tournament is available to anyone in the United States. Viewers can access it at TennisChannelEverywhere.com, sign up and immediately choose from multiple courts in Paris and at tournaments throughout the year. No pay-TV subscription is required.
For the first time, Tennis Channel’s free Bally Sport Caller Match Predictor Game will be available during the French Open. Fans will have the chance to make tournament predictions and win prizes throughout the event by signing up at Tennis.com/Play. Additionally, a new version of the network’s long-running “Racquet Bracket” tournament prediction game will be unveiled on the eve of this year’s competition.
