2021 Wimbledon ESPN Broadcast Schedule

ESPN – (June 21, 2021) Wimbledon Fortnight Returns, Exclusively on ESPN Networks 

ESPN & WIMBLEDON 2021 

After a year of silence, the manicured grass lawns of The All England Lawn Tennis Club will once again be home to sights and sounds of players in white competing for one of sport’s most prestigious trophies and ESPN will again present The Championships, Wimbledon live and exclusively across its platforms.  Coverage from all 18 courts begins Monday, June 28.  The schedule – first ball to last ball – includes more than 150 hours of action on TV plus more than 500 matches from London, all available for fans between ESPN+ and ESPN3 on the ESPN app.  The action will climax with the Ladies’ Championship and the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Doubles Championships on ESPN on Saturday, July 10, and the Gentlemen’s Championship on Sunday, July 11, followed by the Mixed Doubles Championship.

Before that, starting Monday, June 21, and through Thursday, June 24, all four days of qualifying will stream live exclusively on ESPN+.  All-day action starts at 6 a.m. ET from one of the grass courts at the Bank of England Sports Centre in Roehampton, not far from Wimbledon.

Highlights:  All Day, Daily Coverage across TV, ESPN+ and ESPN3

• The first five weekdays, ESPN begins at 6 a.m. ET for daylong coverage (transitioning to ESPN2 at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Friday), scheduled to end at 4:30 p.m.  The action also gets started live at 6 a.m. streaming on ESPN+ and ESPN3.
• The ESPN App will be the all-in-one streaming home for Wimbledon, with ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts and the matches streaming on ESPN+ and ESPN3. Combined, the app will stream more than 500 matches totaling 1,500 hours from all 18 courts (Centre, Courts 1-12, 14-18.), plus AELTC’s daily The Wimbledon Channel and an all-day feed with press conferences from the media centre at the All England Club. Matches will also be available on demand afterwards.

• ESPN+ is also the home for on-demand viewing of annual official Wimbledon films as well as select championship and other memorable matches from previous years.
• On Saturday, July 3, ESPN begins at 7 a.m. with the one-hour Breakfast at Wimbledon before another day full of action (11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. will be on ESPN2).
• On the “middle Sunday,” July 4 – the last edition of Wimbledon’s traditional day of rest before a new schedule commences in 2022 – ABC will broadcast a three-hour review of the first week at 3 p.m.  In addition, ABC will present encore presentations of the singles championships on the day they take place, July 10 and 11, at 3 p.m.
• “Cross Court Coverage” returns the first three days of the second week, with ESPN starting at 8 a.m. and focused on Centre Court all day while fans will enjoy a “grounds pass” with matches from No.1 Court and elsewhere on ESPN2 beginning at 6 a.m. on Monday, July 5, and at 8 a.m. on July 6 and 7.
• From Thursday, July 8, through the Championships, all the action is on ESPN, beginning each day with Breakfast at Wimbledon (7 a.m. on July 8-9 leading into the semifinals, 8 a.m. on July 10-11 previewing the Championships).

• Saturday, July 10, will feature the Ladies’ Singles Championship along with the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Doubles Championship on ESPN with the Gentlemen’s Championship and Mixed Doubles Championship on Sunday.  All other division championships will be available on ESPN+ within the ESPN App.
• As in the past, ESPN3 will offer a second screen experience for the Championships.
• ESPN Deportes will air 72 hours of coverage, starting Monday, June 28 and through the Championships.

ESPN Promo Spots Features The String Queens

ESPN teamed up with dynamic orchestral trio The String Queens, a trio of musical educators Dawn Johnson, Élise Sharp and Kendall Isadore, for its new creative supporting the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. Praised for their “authentic, soulful, and orchestral sound,” TSQ members have been featured in famed performance venues across four continents and made a perfect fit for the “symphony” that is Wimbledon. The creative is driven by The String Queen’s modern orchestral cover of Harry Styles’ “Golden” – symbolic of how well Wimbledon marries tradition and progress in a contemporary world.  See the spot here.

The ESPN Tennis Team, the best in television, at Wimbledon:

• James Blake, who joined ESPN at last year’s US Open, will serve as an analyst. Once ranked as high as No. 4 in the world, Blake won 10 titles during his playing career (1999-2013) and seven additional in doubles.  He was part of the 2007 victorious U.S. Davis Cup team and placed fourth at the 2008 Olympics.  The tournament director of the Miami Open, his memoir, Breaking Back, was a New York Times Best Seller.
• Darren Cahill, who once reached the US Open semifinals and the Australian Open doubles finals and went on to coach fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, has worked for ESPN since 2007.  In 2017-18 he coached Simona Halep to the No. 1 ranking a French Open title.
• Cliff Drysdale, who was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in July 2013, reached the US Open finals and is a two-time Wimbledon and French Open semifinalist.  He has been with ESPN since its first tennis telecast in 1979.  Drysdale was a leader on the court – a top player for many years who was one of the first to use a two-hand backhand – and off the court, as the first president of the ATP.
• Chrissie Evert, a Hall of Famer who joined ESPN in 2011, her 18 Major titles include three at Wimbledon.  She recorded the best career win-loss record in history, reached more Major singles finals than any man or woman (34), and reached the semis or better in 34 consecutive Majors (1971-83).  The AP Female Athlete of the Year four times, in 1976 she was the first woman to be the sole recipient of Sports Illustrated’s Sportswoman of the Year.
• Mary Joe Fernandez, an ESPN analyst since 2000, played in three Major singles finals and won two Majors in doubles, won a Gold Medal in doubles at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and a Bronze in singles in 1992.  She was the coach of the United States’ Fed Cup team for eight years, stepping down in 2016, and coached the 2012 and ’16 U.S. women’s Olympic team.

• Chris Fowler – who joined ESPN in 1986, is the lead ESPN/ABC college football play caller and joined the ESPN tennis team in 2003 – will call matches, including the singles finals.  He hosted College GameDay on football Saturdays 1990-2014, and has hosted World Cup soccer, college basketball including the Final Four, the X Games and Triple Crown horse racing.  Originally, he was the first host of Scholastic Sports America and later was a SportsCenter anchor.
• Brad Gilbert, whose flair and unique nicknames for players have enlivened ESPN’s tennis telecasts since 2004, parlayed his playing career – peaking at a No. 4 ranking and once reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open and at Wimbledon – into coaching Andre Agassi (six Major titles with Brad), Andy Roddick (US Open victory) and Andy Murray.
• Jason Goodall will serve as a studio and match analyst and call action.  A one-time standout among Juniors in Britain whose career was ended by injury at 21, he later coached ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez and Pam Shriver and the British Fed Cup team.
• John McEnroe won seven Major singles titles, including three at Wimbledon, during his storied career, which included 10 more Major crowns in doubles or mixed doubles.  He also led the U.S. to four Davis Cup titles and won the NCAA’s while attending Stanford.  He has worked for ESPN since 2009.
• Patrick McEnroe, who has worked for ESPN since 1995, was a three-time singles All-American at Stanford – where the team won NCAA titles in 1986 and 1988 – and served as General Manager, USTA Elite Player Development from 2008 – 2015.  He won the 1992 French Open doubles title and reached the 1991 Australian Open semifinals in singles.  He served as the U.S. Davis Cup captain 2001-2010; in 2007 the team won its first championship since 1995.

• Chris McKendry returns as host, a role she has filled at all the Majors for ESPN.  She joined ESPN in 1996 as a SportsCenter anchor, and later hosted the Little League World Series and X Games.  As of Spring 2016, she focuses on tennis.  She attended Drexel University on a tennis scholarship.
• Jeremy Schaap joins the ESPN tennis team as a reporter and interviewer.  He has been with the network since 1994 and hosts both E:60 and Outside the Lines.  Schaap has covered virtually every major sporting event in the world, including Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Super Bowls, Tour de France, World Series, major golf and tennis events, the men’s and women’s Final Fours, New York City marathon and Daytona 500.
• Pam Shriver, who started working for ESPN in 1990, long before her Hall of Fame career ended, played in the US Open finals at age 16 (losing to Evert) and three times in the Wimbledon semifinals.  She won 21 Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles (another in Mixed) including five at Wimbledon plus a Gold Medal in doubles at the 1988 Olympics.
• Alexandra Stevenson, who first worked for ESPN at the 2019 US Open, will work her first Wimbledon as an analyst. At the 1999 Wimbledon, she burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old, becoming the first qualifier to reach the semifinals.  Injuries marred her later career, but she did peak in the rankings at No. 18 in 2002.
• Rennae Stubbs, who enjoyed a long career in doubles – winning six Majors: four in women’s and two in mixed, representing Australia at four Olympic Games and for 17 years in Fed Cup, will be an analyst.  She’s worked for ESPN for many years, and for NBC at the Olympics and for Tennis Channel.

Surveying the Fields 

• It could be a historic Wimbledon for No. 1-ranked and defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic who is halfway to a calendar year Grand Slam after wins at the Australian Open and French Open.  With a win, not only would he be on precipice of something only two men have done before (Rod Laver in 1962 and ‘69, Don Budge in 1938) heading to the US Open in New York, but he would equal his rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer with 20 Major championships.
• Djokovic, Nadal and Federer have won 16 of the last 17 Major titles (Dominic Thiem won the 2020 US Open).  Is it time for younger players to step forward?  Even with Nadal skipping the tournament, Wimbledon may not be the place for that, however, as if you add in Andy Murray the Big Four have taken the Wimbledon trophy every year starting in 2003.
• It’s quite the opposite on the Ladies’ side where 14 different women have captured the last 22 Majors.  It’s seven different winners in the last eight, including five first-time Major champions.  Needless to say, the field is wide open, especially with Naomi Osaka taking time off and defending champion Simona Halep’s participation at risk as she recovers from injury.

• Then there’s Serena Williams. If she is the last woman standing, it would be her first title as a mom and her 24th Major title, tying the record held by Australia’s Margaret Court.

MORE TV & DIGITAL MEDIA, AT HOME AND ABROAD

ESPN.com will have its usual exhaustive coverage with reporters on site providing previews, reviews, the latest news and in-depth analysis.  In addition, ESPN’s live coverage will be available via live streaming.  espnW.com will also be on hand with features and profiles.

ESPNDeportes.com will provide live scores and draws, in depth news and coverage of Latin American players, columns, blogs, live chats, video, highlights and news.

In a special presentation of ESPN Audio on SiriusXM, AELTC’s daily Wimbledon Channel Radio will be available on Sirius channel 138, XM channel 207 and Online channel 965.

For the 13th year, ESPN will provide multi-screen coverage on AT&T DirecTV with commentary of five matches in addition to ESPN program through the second Monday of the Championships.  Fans will also receive interviews, features, press conferences and studio analysis from the All England Club.  Commentators for outer court matches will be provided by AELTC.  In addition to the video offerings, DirecTV viewers can access results, schedules, draws and other interactive features through the “Red Button” application on their remote. In total, ESPN will provide more than 350 hours of coverage through this unique application.

ESPN is the home of tennis’ Grand Slam events in Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean, and will provide live Wimbledon coverage to more than 50 countries via its television and digital platforms throughout the region.  ESPN’s pan-regional Spanish language networks will offer more than 145 hours of live tennis, focused on the top-ranked players in the world, while the regional networks will focus on players of local interest. In addition to the live coverage, ESPN will offer two daily encore presentations featuring the best matches of the day. ESPN’s Spanish-language commentator team will include tennis experts Luis Alfredo Alvarez and Eduardo Varela calling matches with analysts Jose Luis Clerc and Daniel Orsanic, along with reporter Natalie Gedra.  The complete team includes Luis Horna, Nicolas Lapentti, Alejandro Klappenbach, Franco Squillari, Sebastian Torok, Mariano Ryan and Mariana Díaz Oliva.  ESPN’s Caribbean networks will provide simulcast coverage and will broadcast over 130 hours of live Wimbledon content.

In Canada, TSN (English) and RDS (French) Will deliver hundreds of hours of live coverage across its five national feeds – from the first round through the championships including Breakfast at Wimbledon. With a focus on Canadian players, TSN’s daily Wimbledon studio coverage will be hosted by Mark Roe, with reports from Mark Masters. RDS will provide more than 80 hours of live, French-language Wimbledon coverage. Additional coverage will be featured on TSN and RDS’s digital platforms (TSN.ca, RDS.ca, and the networks’ mobile apps), including live streaming of bonus courts.

ESPN Play – ESPN’s Spanish- and English-language broadband service available in Latin America and the Caribbean – will offer 1,500 hours of live coverage from up to all 18 courts simultaneously. ESPN Play will also offer qualifying matches, June 21-24 as well as the Wimbledon Surround three-screen service for the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Championships.

ESPN and Tennis 

Tennis has been part of ESPN since its first week on the air, providing numerous memorable moments from around the world, but it has never been as important as today, with the unprecedented position of presenting three of the sport’s Major events from start to finish (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open, with exclusivity at the latter two).