SERENA WILLIAMS, VENUS WILLIAMS, JELENA JANKOVIC & ANA IVANOVIC
TO COLLIDE IN BATTLE FOR TENNIS SUPREMACY WHEN THE
“BNP PARIBAS SHOWDOWN FOR THE BILLIE JEAN KING CUP”
COMES TO MADISON SQUARE GARDEN ON MONDAY, MARCH 2
THIS ONE NIGHT EVENT IS PART OF “TENNIS NIGHT IN AMERICA”
AND WILL BE TELECAST LIVE ON HBO
New York, NY, November 18, 2008 – Four of the world’s top women tennis players, including 2008 Grand Slam Champions Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic, along with World No. 1 Jelena Jankovic will face off in a one-night only single elimination event which will also celebrate tennis legend Billie Jean King.The “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup” is scheduled for Monday, March 2 at Madison Square Garden and will be telecast live on HBO beginning at 7:30 p.m. E.T.
Limited front row VIP tickets priced at $1,000.00 and additional tickets listed at $325.00, $175.00, $125.00, $75.00, and $50.00 went on sale today and can be purchased at the Madison Square Garden box office, all Ticketmaster outlets and online at www.thegarden.com.The $1.2 million “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup”, the featured component of the national “Tennis Night in America” promotion, is produced by StarGames in association with Madison Square Garden.The event will benefit the Dream Vaccines Foundation and Women's Sports Foundation.
"I am honored to be part of an event that showcases Serena, Venus, Jelena, and Ana – four of the best players in women's tennis today -- in one of the most storied tennis venues in the world," said sports icon and tennis legend Billie Jean King. “This collection of players, competing in this spectacular venue, in an event that benefits the Women's Sports Foundation and other organizations, is the perfect mix to deliver an exciting and entertaining celebration of women's sports and tennis."
On the heels of last spring’s sold out Pete Sampras/Roger Federer extravaganza, women’s tennis returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time since 2000 when Martina Hingis defeated Monica Seles in the WTA Championships. The Garden hosted the WTA season-ending tournament every year but one between 1977 and 2000.
“Women’s tennis has a long-standing tradition at Madison Square Garden and we are excited that it will return with this premier event,” said Joel Fisher, executive vice president, MSG Sports.“Madison Square Garden aspires to host the biggest events with the brightest stars in sports and entertainment, and this evening of tennis certainly fits the bill.”
"BNP Paribas is excited to be the title sponsor of the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup,” said Everett Schenk, CEO of BNP Paribas North America.“As supporters of tennis at every level, worldwide, we're pleased to be associated with such an exciting and unparalleled event matching up the world’s top women’s players.We're also thrilled that it's taking place in New York, BNP Paribas' North American headquarters."
This event will mark the return of professional tennis to HBO.For 25 consecutive years, beginning in 1975, HBO was the exclusive cable network home of the Wimbledon championships.
“We are very excited to be telecasting the BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup,” said Ross Greenburg, president HBO Sports. “We have had a relationship with Billie Jean since 1984 and it’s wonderful to be associated with this unique event.”
“We saw from our Sampras/Federer “Battle for Tennis History” in March that the New York audience and the tennis community were hungry to have world class tennis back at Madison Square Garden”, said StarGames President Jerry Solomon. “With the BNP Paribas Showdown we will bring together some of the biggest names in tennis, sports and entertainment to not only showcase the top women in the world but also honor Billie Jean King. We are looking forward once again to a tremendous night at the Garden, one that tennis fans won’t want to miss.”
The pool of players for this one night event is unprecedented, including three women who over the course of the 2008 season held the World No. 1 ranking and all four of whom have been No. 1 at least once in their career. The grouping also consists of three Grand Slam winners, as well as four of the eight qualifiers of the WTA Championships which was recently captured by Venus Williams in Doha.
Serena Williams, currently ranked No. 2 in the latest Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings, holds a total of 44 titles (32 singles / 12 doubles) at Tour events, including 18 Grand Slam titles (nine singles titles, seven doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles). The summer of 2008 garnered all her highlights for this past year. Serena played in the finals at Wimbledon and most recently she captured her third US Open title when she defeated Jelena Jankovic at the USTA Center in New York and returned to the World No.1 ranking, which she held for four weeks in 2008.
Venus Williams, a former World No. 1, is currently ranked No. 6 and is the reigning Wimbledon champion. This season she captured her fifth Wimbledon title in the past nine years and just this month she claimed her first ever season ending Sony Ericsson Championships title in Doha. Venus has accumulated a total of 39 career singles and 11 doubles titles, highlighted by 16 Grand Slam titles (seven singles, seven doubles and 2 mixed doubles).
The Williams sisters as a team recently captured their third Wimbledon Doubles Championship this year and for the second consecutive Olympic Games captured the women’s doubles gold medal. Together they have won a total of 12 doubles championships including seven Grand Slam doubles titles.
The 21 year old Serbian, Ana Ivanovic had a career year in 2008. Ivanovic, currently ranked No. 5 in the world, began with a finals appearance at the Australian Open, and then captured her first Grand Slam title with an impressive victory over Dinara Safina in the French Open at Roland Garros allowing Ivanovic to claim the World No.1 ranking, a mark she would hold for 12 weeks. Ivanovic has now compiled a total of 8 career singles titles.
Rounding out the field will be the current World No. 1 player, Jelena Jankovic. The young Serbian’s consistent play week in and week out led her to reach the quarterfinals or better at 20 of 22 tournaments in 2008, including 4 titles – Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart, and Moscow. Jankovic’s Grand Slam play has resulted in two semi-final appearances at the Australian Open and French Open and of course her memorable match against Serena Williams at the US Open finals. In this unique format, each participant will compete in a one set, no ad scoring semi-finalwith the winners advancing to a best of three set final (regular scoring) for the Billie Jean King Cup. Depending on the draw, which will be announced at a later date, there exists a potential rematch of both the 2008 US Open (Serena Williams vs Jankovic) and Wimbledon finals (Williams vs Williams).
Through “Tennis Night in America”,which will culminate at the BNP Paribas Showdown, the USTA will continue its efforts to grow youth participation in the sport of tennis. Tennis Night in America will be among the largest ever grass roots initiatives the sport has ever seen.
The USTA, the national governing body for the sport, will make this event a major component for its first-ever National Youth Registration Night, where kids and teenagers all over the country can begin signing up for spring and summer league play.
The USTA will also kick off its search for “America’s Best Tennis Town” in conjunction with the MSG event, a nationwide search for the most passionate tennis town in America that will culminate with the announcement of the winner at the 2009 U.S. Open in August.
“Our core mission is to grow the sport of tennis throughout the United States,” said USTA Executive Director and COO Gordon Smith. “An exciting event such as this, featuring four of the most dynamic players in the game in one of the most revered venues in the world, is a wonderful opportunity to not only galvanize our fans, but to attract so many more to this great sport.”
BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in global banking and financial services and is one of the 3 strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor’s. The group is present in 85 countries, with more than 171,000 employees, including 131.000 in Europe and 15,000 in the United States. The group holds key positions in three major segments: Corporate and Investment Banking, Asset Management & Services and Retail Banking. Present throughout Europe in all of its business lines, the bank’s two domestic markets in retail banking are France and Italy. BNP Paribas also has a significant presence in the United States and strong positions in Asia and the emerging markets. This year, BNP Paribas celebrates its 35th anniversary of its partnership with tennis. Since 1973, BNP Paribas has been actively involved with the sport and has consistently strengthened its commitment since then to support it both locally and worldwide. BNP Paribas has historically been a privileged partner in all aspects of tennis: as an Official Sponsor of the French Open for 34 years, and a sponsor of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas since 2001, of the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas since 2005, and of the BNP Paribas Masters since 1986, as well as other major international tournaments including the WTA Bank of the West Classic in California, Master Series Monte Carlo, BNP Paribas Women’s Open in Strasbourg and Grand Prix de Lyon.
Madison Square Garden, L.P. is owned by Cablevision Systems Corporation and includes the New York Knicks (NBA); the New York Rangers (NHL); the New York Liberty (WNBA); the Hartford Wolf Pack (American Hockey League); MSG Entertainment, which includes concerts and events at Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, the Beacon Theatre, the legendary Chicago Theatre, as well as an exclusive co-booking agreement with the venerable Wang Theatre in Boston; and which manages wholly-owned live entertainment properties including the Radio City Rockettes and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular; MSG Media, which is comprised of television networks MSG and MSG Plus, and MSG Interactive which oversees all company wireless and online initiatives; Fuse, the only national music television network; and the Madison Square Garden arena complex, located in the heart of the New York metropolitan area.
HBO Sports has brought the best in sports to television for more than three decades -- from world championship boxing events, to intriguing documentaries and specials, to compelling all-access reality programming to the most provocative sports magazine shows on TV. In 1975, HBO Sports acquired the cable television rights to Wimbledon marking the first time that early round coverage of a championship tennis tournament was televised. HBO carried Wimbledon for 25 years. Among the tennis documentaries produced by HBO Sports were the 1994 Sports Emmy-Award-winner “Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World,” and the groundbreaking 2006 documentary “Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer,” which captured a Peabody Award.
StarGames, LLC (www.stargamesinc.com), which, in partnership with tennis great Ivan Lendl, promoted the Sampras/Federer match in March of 2008 at the Garden, is a full service sports marketing and production company based outside of Boston, MA. Now in its 14th year, StarGames produces programming for television, broadband and DVD home distribution, and, in association with Champagne Tennis Etcetera, procures sponsors for major sports and entertainment events. In addition, StarGames creates and produces live sporting/entertainment events, represents professional athletes and operates its own broadband channels through affiliations with YouTube and TVUNetworks.
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level -- from local communities to the highest level of the professional game.It owns and operates the US Open, the largest annually attended sporting event in the world, and launched the Olympus US Open Series linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open.A not-for-profit organization with more than 725,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game.In addition, it owns the 94 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games.For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com.
Dream Vaccines Foundation is a new non-profit US-based public charity that will be focused on the development of the vaccines against HIV/AIDS and malaria. Since the viruses which are the source of HIV and Malaria are different according to each region of the world, Dream Vaccines foundation will support specific human clinical trials in different areas of the developing world. The Foundation will offer grants to researchers and will also create and finance “Dream Vaccines Foundation Chairs” for professors willing to bring their input on those vaccines. CONTACTS: Dan Schoenberg, MSG (212) 465-6367 – daniel.schoenberg@thegarden.com Larry Torres, MSG (212) 631-5178 – larry.torres@thegarden.com Pete Holtermann, HolterMedia (847) 380-4124 – holtermedia@gmail.com Jessica Smyser, StarGames (781) 224-9655 Kevin Flaherty, HBO (212) 512-5052 Tom LaDue, USTA (914)-697-2352
