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Austin Returns to Tennis Channel Academy

LOS ANGELES — Tracy Austin, one of America’s most popular tennis stars, will once again host Tennis Channel Academy, which begins its third season on the network this month. As she has done since the show’s 2008 debut, Austin will bring viewers a tennis lesson from one of the world’s top instructors each week. The first episode of Tennis Channel Academy, which features Austin and Roger Federer’s coach Paul Annacone, premieres Sunday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m. ET, and will be replayed during subsequent weeks. The season will conclude Dec. 26 with a Best of Tennis Channel Academy episode with highlights from the six weekly lessons. A complete schedule can be found at tennischannel.com/schedule.

“I’m thrilled to begin another season of Tennis Channel Academy and to introduce some of the best coaches in the world to our audience,” said Austin. “During the past two years they’ve been able to share their ideas about techniques, drills and strategy to help viewers bring their games to the next level. I look forward to doing it again with this year’s group of Tennis Channel Academy coaches.” Tennis Channel Academy introduces audiences to the men and women who coach the best players in the game. With techniques and tips that can be used by all viewers — from beginners to seasoned professionals - each episode features a different coach and his or her distinct tennis knowhow. In the first edition of the new season, Austin introduces audiences to Annacone, the longtime coach of American legend Pete Sampras, who was chosen by Federer as his coach this year. Other coaches scheduled to appear this season include Gigi Fernandez, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, and Eliot Teltscher, a top-10 player during the 1980s who has coached the likes of Sampras, Justin Gimelstob and Taylor Dent. This season’s coaches join the likes of Nick Bollettieri, Chris Evert and her brother John, Robert Lansdorp, Harold Solomon, Wayne Bryan, and Rennae Stubbs, all of whom have appeared on Tennis Channel Academy during the past two seasons. Austin is perhaps best known for storming onto the tennis scene and dethroning four-time US Open champion Evert in 1979, winning the tournament as a 16-year-old prodigy, the youngest US Open champion in history. She held the No. 1 singles ranking in 1980 before a variety of injuries cut short her career, but nonetheless managed to win 30 career titles, including two US Open singles championships and a Wimbledon mixed doubles title. The International Tennis Hall of Fame inducted Austin into its wings in 1992. 2010 Tennis Channel Academy Schedule (episodes premiere Sundays at 7:30 p.m. ET, with the exception of the Eliot Teltscher edition, which premieres at 7 p.m. ET)

Tennis Channel (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, AT&T U-verse, DIRECTV and DISH Network.

Posted on November 11, 2010
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