UKTV serves up new live tennis for Dave

Monday 24 April 2017

Exclusive rights secured for fast-paced tennis tournament - the 2017 Tie Break Tens Series

Coverage starts 6.30 pm 4 May, live from Madrid, on Dave

Broadcaster Ore Oduba to host Daves coverage

Today UKTV, Britains biggest multichannel broadcaster, announced it has secured exclusive rights to the new, fast-paced ultra-competitive tennis format, Tie Break Tens, for its free-to-air entertainment channel, Dave. Tie Break Tens is a short format of tennis in which only tie-breaks are played. Each match is a first-to-ten point tie break. Every tournament awards a winner-take-all cheque after a single, four-hour session of super-charged high-pressure tennis.

Produced by Sunset Vine for Dave, live coverage of the 2017 Tie Break Tens series starts with Madrid (Thursday 4 May) where, for the first time, both mens and womens events will take place, side-by-side, with a knockout format used.

The Mutua Charity Tie Break Tens features British No. 1 and current World No. 7 Jo Konta in the womens event.. She will be up against the French Open champion Garbine Muguruza, former World No.1 Maria Sharapova, 2012 Wimbledon runner-up and World No 8 Agnieszka Radwanska, World No. 5 Simona Halep, Olympic gold-medallist Monica Puig and big-hitting American Madison Keys.

For the mens title, the US Open champion and World No 3 Stan Wawrinka, World No.5 Kei Nishikori, Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov and Spanish trio David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez will battle it out along with French flier Lucas Pouille. Both the mens and womens tournaments still have one more player each to announce. The 16 players will compete in 14 tie-break matches, with two tournaments, running in parallel, over the evening.

Tie Break Tens is ordered by director of commissioning Richard Watsham and Dave general manager Steve North. It will be executive produced by UKTVs Arch Dyson and Mike Brosnan for Sunset Vine.

Richard Watsham, director of commissioning at UKTV, said,

Im confident Sunset Vine will capture the energy and speed of the Tie Break Tens event brilliantly with entire tournaments packed into four hours of live sports action. Its fantastic to have world class tennis in an ultra-competitive format with top players live on Dave.

Steve North, general manager for Dave, said,

The Tie Break Tens format is an excellent way to get shorter and faster matches giving a thrilling evening of tennis entertainment. Its looking to do for tennis what Twenty20 did for cricket with significant levels of prize money attracting the very best players.

Victoria Sinclair, of Tie Break Tens, said,

We are delighted to welcome Dave on-board as exclusive broadcaster of live Tie Break Tens in the UK. Tie Break Tens is a fast-paced, innovative short-format of tennis designed to give spectators and television viewers a fantastic night of intense competition and entertainment. Dave, an innovative, free-to-air channel is a perfect fit for us as we seek to reach as many sports fans as possible, as well as introducing tennis to a new audience. Our research has shown that Tie Break Tens is particularly appealing to a younger viewer, who appreciate the pace and pressure this format offers, and so we are confident our partnership will deliver just that.

Andrew Preece, Sunset Vines executive director, said,

Sunset Vine is excited to produce Tie Break Tens - a uniquely intense pro tennis tournament decided in a single prime-time night. . The format offers fans the opportunity to see a full tournament in one session, and a host of stars battling it out on court. . Theres no room for error with shorter 10 pt Tie-Break matches requiring the players to be at their best with every shot. Tie Break Tens delivers an attitude to the game never before seen in the sport and thats why were excited to be partnering Dave to bring this event to the UK with a bold and innovative coverage. In Madrid, 16 of the sports top stars will be courtside throughout watching and analysing their contemporaries, giving viewers an insight into the game never before seen in the sport. Fans of tennis will see their heroes in a thrilling new perspective ...those new to the sport will be gripped and entertained.

Last year in Vienna, Andy Murray reached the Tie Break Tens final, losing out to home-favourite Dominic Thiem, who took away a winner-take-all prize of $250,000. It was the second time that Murray had been denied at the final hurdle in Tie Break Tens. At the inaugural event in London, Murray lost out to young British player Kyle Edmund, who walked away with more money in one night than he had earned in the previous 12 months. In the following year, Edmund was one of the highest climbing players on the ATP World Tour, from outside the top 100 to 48.

Daves social media via @davechannel on Twitter and the channels Facebook and Snapchat feeds will provide second screen coverage with point by point commentary on the games, plus behind-the-scenes interviews. #TB10Madrid #TieBreakTens

Locations and dates Madrid - 4th May 18.30-22:30 GMT

ENDS

For more information please contact: Justine Bower, Head of Consumer Communictions, UKTV

About Dave Sky 111/246, Virgin 128/194, Freeview 12, BT & TalkTalk 12 On demand on Sky, Virgin and UKTV Play

Daves had a haircut and shave in recent years as it grows from awkward teenager to fully-fledged commissioner of new and original shows. And its not just comedy these days but entertainment and even some knock-out live sport. Hit UKTV Original commissions include BAFTA-nominated Taskmaster, Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Crackanory, all laden with the biggest names in British comedy. Dave enjoyed critical success with two series of Hoff the Record, an International Emmy award-winning mockumentary ensemble comedy led by the living legend David Hasselhoff.

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