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Tennis Channel to air Serena Williams Special

LOS ANGELES — Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle, will present Serena: My Journey to Africa, on June 7, 2010, at 8 p.m., ET.

Far from the clay courts of Roland Garros and the grass courts of Wimbledon, this 30-minute original program chronicles American tennis icon Serena Williams’ recent visit to a small, poverty-stricken village in Kenya, where she attended the opening ceremony of the secondary school she funded through the Serena Williams Foundation. The special will be repeated throughout June. Check tennischannel.com for additional air dates and times.

“Through Serena, we were able to show how tennis players have an impact beyond being sports heroes,” said Laura Hockridge, executive producer. “Working with Hewlett Packard, Serena was able to provide the Wee people educational opportunities that they would otherwise not have access to. We feel this is an inspiring tale that will show our viewers yet another side of this sport.”

Tennis Channel takes viewers on a poignant journey with Williams, who serves as narrator. When she first arrives in Wee Village for the opening of both the Wee Secondary School and the School for the Deaf, she is inundated with gifts from the locals and entertained with song and dance. At one point, she takes to the chalk board where she plays teacher, offering a moving lesson on the importance of striving for your dreams. She also guides the children through a computer tutorial in the modern computer lab, a result of her collaboration with Hewlett Packard. The program then exposes the uphill battle these children face, specifically focusing on a 15-year-old boy who struggles in extreme poverty and poor living conditions. Williams concludes the special with words of hope: “This school represents opportunity and with kids this strong, not even the sky can limit what they can do now.”

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, Olympus 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 nine of the top 10 MSOs, Verizon FiOS TV, and has a national footprint via DIRECTV and DISH Network.

Posted on June 3, 2010
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