This Week In Tennis

In cased you missed it; here is a summary of the week’s biggest tennis stories.

1.   The WTA makes History

This past Wednesday, the Women’s Tennis Association and Media Company, PERFORM, signed the largest media rights contact in the history of women’s sports. In addition to being the largest media rights agreement in women’s sports history, the ten-year, $525 million agreement is the largest live media and production endeavor for the WTA. The WTA, with the creation of WTA Media will look to expand the amount of premium content for fans around the world. Most importantly, the WTA will be broadcasting all 2,000 main draw matches, which dwarfs the 450 matches currently broadcasted for fans. The deal is set to begin in 2017 and run through 2026.

2.    Radwanska names ‘Supercoach’

Last week I reported Agnieszka Radwanska would be adding a high-profile coach to her camp for the 2015 season. On December 8^th, the 25-year-old Pole stated she would be coached by tennis-legend Martina Navratilova. The 18-time grand slam champion will work alongside Radwanska’s long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. Navratilova becomes the latest former player to make the transition to coach. Last season, former players Michael Chang and Stefan Edberg had successful starts to their coaching careers working with Kei Nishikori and Roger Federer.       

3.    Keys Makes Coaching Change

Less than a week after I reported Madison Keys hiring Wim Fissette as her new coach, the 19-year-old American has made a coaching change. Keys will instead add Jon Leach, the husband of Lindsay Davenport, to her coaching team. The partnership developed after the American spent time hitting with Leach while Davenport recovered from foot surgery. Being parents of four young children, Davenport and Leach will work with Keys at the bigger WTA events. At some point, another coach will be added to travel to the smaller tournaments. Madison Keys is the third-highest ranked American at No. 30.  

4.    Junior Report: Cici Bellis Year-End No. 1

As a result of her quarterfinal victory at the Orange Bowl this past Friday, 15-year-old Cici Bellis clinched the year-end No. 1 junior ranking. This marks the second time in three years that an American girl finished the year as the top junior player. In 2012, Taylor Townsend became the first American girl in nearly three decades to accomplish this feat. At this year’s U.S. Open, Bellis won the hearts of U.S. fans with her inspiring opening-round performance against Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova. The American became the youngest player since Anna Kournikova in 1996 to win a main draw match at a major.