LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4, 2021 – Cancelled due to COVID-19 last year, the WTA Finals and Next Gen ATP Finals will be back on the professional tennis calendar next week, live on Tennis Channel and streaming service Tennis Channel Plus. The women’s year-end championships will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, Nov. 10-17. The men’s 21-and-under event is set for Milan Nov. 9-13. Live coverage begins on both Tennis Channel and Tennis Channel Plus on the first day of each event and continues through its finals.
Tennis Channel will show more than 50 live hours of the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara, and another 30 encore hours, with all matches live and on-demand on Tennis Channel Plus. There are two daily singles and doubles sessions most days of the event, at 3 p.m. ET and 8:30 p.m. ET. The doubles championship will be held Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. ET., followed by the singles final at or after 8:30 p.m. ET.
The network will cover 15 live hours of the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, and provide another 15 encore hours. Similar to the women’s championships, there are two daily sessions November 9-13, at 8 a.m. ET and 1:30 p.m. ET. Semifinals take place Friday, Nov. 12, at 1:30 p.m. ET, with the final Saturday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m. ET. All matches will stream on Tennis Channel Plus.
Hall of Famers Pam Shriver (@PHShriver) and Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76) will be part of Tennis Channel’s WTA Finals on-air team, with Shriver announcing and Davenport offering analysis. Announcer Ted Robinson (@tedjrobinson) will also call matches for the network and former player Taylor Townsend (@TaylorTownsend) will provide analysis as
Leif Shiras (@ShirasLeif) will announce Next Gen ATP Finals matches for Tennis Channel, along with Russ Thaler (@RussThaler). Paul Annacone (@paul_annacone) and Nick Monroe (@nickmonroe10s) will handle analysis. Shiras and Annacone played on the ATP Tour, while Monroe is still active.
Steve Weissman (@Steve_Weissman) will host studio show Tennis Channel Live, which airs most evenings at 8 p.m. ET. In addition to Davenport and Townsend, he will be joined by Hall of Famers Jim Courier and Andy Roddick (@andyroddick).
The WTA Finals is one of the most exclusive events in women’s tennis. Throughout the year players earn points based on their on-court victories. Only the top-eight singles players and doubles teams qualify for the WTA Finals at the end of the season. Held in Guadalajara’s Akron Tennis Stadium, the championships split the eight singles players and eight doubles teams into two round-robin groups of four each. Everyone is guaranteed three matches, one against each other player or doubles team in her group. The top two in each group advance to the semifinals.
Because the event features the most successful tennis players of the year, each match has the potential to be a hard-fought, exciting battle. Among the stars who have qualified are two-time major singles champion Garbine Muguruza, 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek.
The Next Gen ATP Finals showcases the world’s top-ranked 21-and-under singles players in men’s tennis, in an annual competition among the sport’s rising young stars. The tournament is held for five days in Milan’s Allianz Cloud stadium using the same format as the WTA Finals. The eight players are split into two pools of four, with round-robin matches to determine the top two finishers in each pool. Three Americans have qualified for the tournament: Jenson Brooksby, Sebastian Korda and Brandon Nakashima. Jannik Sinner, who won the most recent edition of the tournament in 2019 as an 18-year-old, has qualified for the event again.
