Bangers And Smash: ESPN, Tennis Channel Serve Full Court Menu At Wimbledon ’24
Sunday, June 30, 2024 at 11:55AM By Barry Janoff
June 30, 2024: Roland-Garros and the 2024 Summer Olympics have people worldwide taking about Paris.
With Wimbledon perched in between, London is saying, “Don’t you forget about me.”
ESPN and its platforms will go a long way in seeing that London is top-of-mind, presenting exclusively and in its entirety the Wimbledon tennis Grand Slam from the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London beginning, July 1. For the second consecutive year, coverage will be presented by Barclays.
In addition to coverage on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes (Spanish) and streaming on the ESPN App via ESPN+ and TV Everywhere, ABC will broadcast select live matches on the middle Saturday and Sunday.
ESPN has televised Wimbledon since 2003, with exclusivity in the U.S. since 2012.
Tennis Channel plans more than 184 hours of Wimbledon coverage, including encore replays and first-run programming.
Tennis Channel has been covering Wimbledon since 2008.
ESPN is again supporting with multi-media marketing, headed by an anchor spot, “Wimbledon 2024: The Players Are Ready" (Coco Gauff pictured below).
As part of its marketing support, the All England Lawn Tennis Club has updated its “Always Like Never Before” campaign.
It will air across Wimbledon’s digital and social media channels, as well as via its global broadcast partners.
Wimbledon marketing partners include American Express, Babolat, Barclays, Emirates, Evian. IBM, Lanson, LavAzza, Pimm;s Polo Ralph Lauren, Range Rover, Rolex, Sipsmith, Slazenger, Stella Artois and Vodafone.
ESPN’s daily coverage from all 18 courts — first ball to last ball — will culminate with the Ladies’ Championship and the Gentlemen’s Doubles Championship July 13, and the Gentlemen’s Championship and the Ladies’ Doubles Championship July 14.
Both singles championships will also stream on ESPN+ in English and Spanish.
Wimbledon’s total prize money will rise to a record $64 million, with the singles champions each earning $3.45 million, All England Club officials said.
The total amount is $6.8 million more than last year, an increase of 11.9%. Wimbledon 2023 singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova each won $2.95 million in 2023.
By comparison, Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek singles champions each won more than $2.6 million at the just-concluded Roland-Garros from a pool of $57.1 million.
At Wimbledon, Swiatek seeks become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2015 to earn a Channel Slam. Only seven women have done it, and only five men. “For sure it's a huge challenge,” Swiatek said during a post-Paris media conference.
Australian Open 2024 singles champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka each won $2.08 million from a pool of $57,824,772.
U.S. Open 2023 total prize money was $65 million, with singles winners Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff getting $3 million each.
Djokovic and Andy Murray are in the Wimbledon draw despite both coming off recent operations, Djokovic for a torn meniscus on his right knee and removing a spinal cyst for Murray.
“The knee has responded very well to all of that so far, which of course then is a great sign for my participation in Wimbledon,” Djokovic told the media at Wimbledon. “That's why I decided to be in the draw,” He is not scheduled to begin play until Tuesday (July 2).
As for Murray: “I’m going to wait until the last minute to see if I’m going to be able to and I’ve earned that right to do that,” he told the media. His first singles match would also be July 2, but he may opt to limit himself to doubles, where he would be teamed with his brother, Jamie.
After Murray played a practice set Sunday he told reporters, “It went pretty well, but I still don’t have 100% feeling and sensation in my leg.”
This year’s ESPN coverage will be enhanced with expanded live coverage on the middle Saturday and Sunday starting earlier (7 AM ET).
A new studio show, Wimbledon: Second Serve, will air during the final hour of coverage July 1-5.
The program, shot from ESPN’s all new on-site studios, will “wrap up the days’ events recapping matches with analysis and discussion by ESPN’s on-air tennis team as well as offer a look at any outer court matches still in play.”
That is in addition to the returning Breakfast at Wimbledon (July 11-24) including recaps, analysis and player features.
ESPN Deportes will air more than 95 hours of live action in Spanish, including the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s semi-finals and Championships.
The ESPN App will offer at least 700 matches across the two weeks from all 18 courts.
ESPN’s on-air roster includes Chris Fowler, Darren Cahill, Cliff Drysdale, John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, James Blake, Chrissie Evert, Mary Joe Fernandez, Chris McKendry and Pam Shriver.
Recently retired tennis icon John Isner makes his ESPN commentating and analysis debut during Week One. Nick Kyrgios, who made his on-air debut with ESPN during the 2024 Australian Open, returns for both weeks.
Photo: ESPNESPN will also debut an eight-part ESPN+ Original Series, In the Arena: Serena Williams, on July 10
Tennis Channel plans upward of 65 unique hours for the grass-court event, including six-hour and four-hour match segments, analysis, interviews, news and feature reporting, including Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport and Jim Courier.
At Roland-Garros, Grand Slam winners Alcaraz and Swiatek both surpassed $30 million in career prize money. Alcaraz ($31,543,329) is the 14th man to top that figure, Swiatek ($31,276,512) is the ninth woman.
Top Three Men In ATP Career Earnings:
$182,494,969: Novak Djokovic
$134,887,504: Rafael Nadal
$130,594,339: Roger Federer
Top Three Women In WTA Career Earnings:
$94,816,730: Serena Williams
$42,648,697: Venus Williams
$40,227,773: Simona Halep
Men’s Draw
Women’s Draw
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