U.S. Davis Cup Team Fights For 2015 Tournament Spot, Sept. 12-14

LOS ANGELES, Sept.11, 2014 –Tennis Channel will provide exclusive live coverage of the U.S.Davis Cup team’s competition against Slovakia in Chicago, this weekend, with world-whiparound telecasts at 5 p.m. ET, Friday, Sept. 12; 3 p.m. ET, Saturday, Sept. 13; and 1:30 p.m. ET, Sunday, Sept. 14. Similar to the setup used at major events like the US Open and French Open, Tennis Channel’s Center Court Davis Cup telecast will utilize a central-desk format and seamless coverage of matches playing simultaneously on multiple courts.

The United States must defeat Slovakia to qualify for the 2015 Davis Cup tournament. Top-ranked American player John Isner will join Sam Querrey and World No. 1 doubles twins Bob and Mike Bryan, as they fight for a spot in next year’s Davis Cup tournament after losing their first-round match to Britain in January.

In addition to televising the United States-Slovakia Davis Cup competition this weekend, Tennis Channel will cover the 2014 Davis Cup semifinals, with live coverage of France-Czech Republic play in Paris, beginning at 4:30 a.m. ET, and Switzerland-Italy competition in Geneva,beginning at 7 a.m. ET.  Stars set to play in this weekend’s Davis Cup “Final Four” include France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils; the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych; Switzerland’s all-time major singles titlist Roger Federer and reigning Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka; and Italy’s Fabio Fognini.

Tennis Channel’s digital subscription service, Tennis Channel Plus, will also offer live coverage of the Israel-Argentina competition in Sunrise, Fla., Friday–Sunday. Available to all U.S.-based digital users, the service can be accessed through the network’s free Tennis Channel Everywhere app or through www.tennischanneleverywhere.com. Tennis Channel Plus users are not required to subscribe to Tennis Channel.

Tennis Channel’s Davis Cup coverageis as follows (all time ET):

Friday, Sept. 12:

4:30 a.m. – Live Singles #1 France v. Czech Republic

7a.m. – Live Singles France v. Czech Republic/Switzerland v. Italy

{1:30p.m. – Instant Encore Singles #1 Switzerland v. Italy}

5 p.m. – Live Singles #1 USA v. Slovakia

8 p.m. – Live Singles #2 USA v. Slovakia

{11p.m. – Instant Encore Singles #1 USA v. Slovakia}

 

Saturday, Sept. 13:

7a.m. – Live Doubles France v. Czech Republic/Switzerland v. Italy

{11:30a.m. – Instant Encore Doubles Switzerland v. Italy}

3 p.m. –Live Doubles USA v. Slovakia

{12 a.m. – Instant Encore Doubles USA v. Slovakia}

 

Sunday, Sept. 14:

4:30 a.m. – Live Singles #3France v. Czech Republic

6a.m. – Live Singles France v. Czech Republic/Switzerland v. Italy

1:30p.m. – Live Singles #3 USA v. Slovakia

4:30p.m. – Live Singles #4 USA v. Slovakia

{10 p.m. – Instant Encore Singles #3 USA v. Slovakia}

 

The United States hopes to uphold its unbeaten record against Slovakia (2-0), with victories coming in 2002 and 2003. The American squad finds itself in a rematch at the same stage of play as in 2003, when the Americans defeated the Slovaks 3-2 in Bratislava, Slovakia. The United States must defeat Slovakia in order to compete in the 2015 Davis Cup competition.The country leads all nations with 32 Davis Cup championships, the most recent in 2007.

The U.S. Davis Cup team is captained by Jim Courier, who as a player helped the American squad win the Davis Cup in 1992 and 1995. John Isner, currently the top-ranked American male, enters this weekend’s competition as the last American man to be eliminated at the US Open.    Sam Querrery recently defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to advance to the Winston-Salem semifinals for his third-consecutive year before falling to Jerzy Janowicz. Widely considered to be the best men’s doubles team of all time, brothers Bob and Mike Bryan captured their 16^th Grand Slam title at this year’s US Open and their 100^th career title.

If Slovakia wins this weekend it will qualify for a chance to play for the 2015 Davis Cup. Slovakia’s team is captained by Miloslav Mecir and features Martin Klizan, Lukas Lacko, Norbert Gombos and Michal Mertinak.

Tennis Channel (www.TennisChannel.com) is the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. A hybrid of comprehensive sports, health, fitness, pop culture, entertainment, lifestyle and travel programming, the network is home to every aspect of the wide-ranging, worldwide tennis community. It also has the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television, with telecast rights to the US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open), Australian Open, Emirates Airline US Open Series, ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events, top-tier WTA competitions, Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and Hyundai Hopman Cup. Tennis Channel is carried by nine of the top 10 video providers.

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