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Tennis Channel to Chronicle Seles' Run on Hit ABC Series Dancing With the Stars

LOS ANGELES — Monica Seles, retired nine-time Grand Slam champion, will chronicle her upcoming experiences as a contestant on ABC’s hit series Dancing with the Stars through weekly interviews and Q&A videos on Tennis Channel and its Web site, tennischannel.com. The former tennis star and youngest French Open winner in history (16 years, six months in 1990) begins her quest in the series’ sixth season, airing on ABC Tuesday, March 18, at 9 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. PT. She’ll perform a second routine, Monday, March 24, at 8 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT, before the first two couples are eliminated from the competition on Tuesday, March 25, at 8 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT.

Dancing with the Stars is one of the most-watched series on television, and pairs well-known celebrities with expert dancing instructors in a weekly dance off in front of judges and home viewers who are encouraged to vote on the performances electronically. Airing Monday and Tuesday evenings, every week the lowest-scoring team is eliminated from the competition.

Following each episode, Seles will recount her week in a News & Notes short-form segment that will repeatedly appear on Tennis Channel and its Web site until the next edition of Dancing with the Stars. The network will solicit online questions from fans as well, which the tennis star will answer in a Web video each week. Additionally, Tennis Channel will post video well wishes from fans on tennischannel.com.

“I’m excited to have this opportunity with Tennis Channel to tell fans about my experiences on Dancing With The Stars each week,” said Seles. “It’s great to have an outlet to stay in touch with the tennis community while I’m on the show, and I’m thankful for the network’s support during the competition.”

Popular tennischannel.com fan blogger James La Rosa also will be on the Dancing with the Stars scene, offering his offbeat observations of Seles and the series. Tennis Channel will give one fan two tickets into the show’s Los Angeles studio audience, through a sweepstakes on tennischannel.com.

On Dancing with the Stars, Seles will compete with other celebrities Priscilla Presley, Marlee Matlin, Jason Taylor, Kristi Yamaguchi, Adam Carolla, Cristian de la Fuente, Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Guttenberg, Mario, Penn Jillette and Marissa Jaret Winokur. She will be partnered with instructor Jonathan Roberts.

Seles’ multiple championships at the French Open, US Open and Australian Open are part of 53 career singles titles overall, eighth on the all-time women’s tennis list. She is the youngest winner ever of both the French Open and the season-ending Tour Championships, capturing each when she was just 16 years old, and in 1991 became the youngest player to reach the World No. 1 singles ranking (now second all-time, surpassed by Martina Hingis). Seles also won three championships as a member of the United States’ Fed Cup team during her career.

Tennis Channel (tennischannel.com) is the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and passionate lifestyle of tennis. 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 Wimbledon, Roland Garros (the French Open), the Australian Open, US Open Series, ATP Masters Series, top-tier Sony Ericsson WTA Tour championship competitions, Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and Hyundai Hopman Cup. Tennis Channel is carried by eight of the top 10 MSOs and has a national footprint via DIRECTV and DISH Network.

Posted on March 16, 2008
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