New York, NY, February 17, 2009 – The pairings for the two semifinal matches of the inaugural “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup” have been set for the March 2 event at Madison Square Garden.
The 2008 year-end No. 1, Jelena Jankovic, the US Open finalist, is the top seed and will play Wimbledon Champion Venus Williams, who closed the year at No. 6. The other semifinal features 2008 US Open and 2009 Australian Open Champion Serena Williams, who finished 2008 No. 2 but has now regained the No. 1 spot, against French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic, who ended 2008 at No. 5. (Head-to-heads follow this release.)
Limited tickets are still available and can be purchased at the Madison Square Garden box office, all ticketmaster outlets and online at www.thegarden.com. The matches will be broadcast live on HBO beginning at 7:30 p.m. E.T. (4:30 p.m. P.T.).
Should Serena Williams win her semifinal, the “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup” is assured of having a rematch of a 2008 Grand Slam championship for the final match at Madison Square Garden. Serena lost to her sister Venus in the 2008 Wimbledon final before coming to New York and defeating Jankovic for the US Open crown.
During a media teleconference last week, Venus Williams made it clear how she hopes the tournament plays out. “Of course, I’m hoping for an all Williams finals. I think that would be most exciting for us and hopefully for the fans too,” the older Williams sister said. “Obviously I do want to win, so I would love the cup to say Venus Williams. I don’t know if that’s greedy or not, you know wanting it over my own sister. But I can’t help it."
In the unique format for the $1.2 million “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup,” each participant will compete in a one set, no ad scoring semi-final with the winners advancing to a best of three set final (regular scoring) for the Billie Jean King Cup.
The March 2 event marks the return of women’s tennis to Madison Square Garden and the return of the sport to HBO. On the heels of last spring’s sold out Pete Sampras/Roger Federer extravaganza, women’s tennis returns 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. 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.
The pairings for the semifinal matches were determined by using the 2008 year-end rankings and having the highest ranked player take on the lowest ranked, then assigning the two remaining players to play each other. The order of play for these semifinals on March 2 will be announced at a later date.
Serena Williams has already earned the first invitation to the 2010 “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup” by virtue of her win at the 2009 Australian Open. The winners of the remaining three Grand Slam events in 2009 will also be invited to participate in the 2010 event at Madison Square Garden.
The “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup”, the featured component of the national “Tennis Night in America” promotion, is produced by StarGames and Madison Square Garden. The event will benefit the Dream Vaccines Foundation and Women's Sports Foundation.
In partnership with the USTA, the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S., more than 700 tennis facilities, parks and community centers across the country will host the first-ever national youth registration initiative for spring and summer tennis programs. Along with demonstrations for kids and parents, Monday, March 2 will celebrate “Tennis Night in America.” National Youth Registration Night events serve as a great night for parents to sign-up their children for league and team tennis play, including USTA Jr. Team Tennis.
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, of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris since 1986 and is in the first year of sponsoring the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, 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. A not-for-profit organization with 725,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, the highest attended annual sporting event in the world, and launched the Olympus
US Open Series linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. 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. The USTA philanthropic entity, USTA Serves, provides grants and scholarships and through tennis, helps underserved youth and people with disabilities to improve academics, build character and strive for excellence. For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com.
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
2009 BNP PARIBAS SHOWDOWN FOR THE BILLIE JEAN KING CUP
SEMIFINAL HEAD-TO-HEADS
JELENA JANKOVIC (SRB) vs. VENUS WILLIAMS (USA)
Jankovic leads 5-4
2005 STANFORD HARD O QF WILLIAMS, VENUS 6-3 6-3
2006 ROME CLAY O QF WILLIAMS, VENUS 5-7 6-4 6-1
2006 WIMBLEDON GRASS O R32 JANKOVIC, JELENA 7-6(8) 4-6 6-4
2007 CHARLESTON CLAY O SF JANKOVIC, JELENA 3-6 6-3 7-6(5)
2007 FRENCH OPEN CLAY O R32 JANKOVIC, JELENA 6-4 4-6 6-1
2007 US OPEN HARD O QF WILLIAMS, VENUS 4-6 6-1 7-6(4)
2008 ROME CLAY O QF JANKOVIC, JELENA 5-7 6-2 6-3
2008 STUTTGART HARD I SF JANKOVIC, JELENA 6-7(8) 7-5 6-2
2008 TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS HARD O SF WILLIAMS, VENUS 6-2 2-6 6-3
ANA IVANOVIC (SRB) vs. SERENA WILLIAMS (USA)
S.Williams leads 1-0
2006 US OPEN HARD O R32 WILLIAMS, SERENA 6-2 6-4
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