USA Network Drops US Open After Years Of Coverage

USA Network, the longtime home of weeknight coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, will no longer televise the tournament after this year.

The United States Tennis Association, which stages the U.S. Open during the last week in August and the first week in September at the U.S. National Tennis Center in New York, has yet to complete a new deal to replace USA. However, people familiar with the situation say the event's weekday coverage is likely to end up on Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN network of channels or the Tennis Channel, a small, independent network.

Paul Melvin, a spokesman for ESPN, confirmed the network was in talks with the USTA. Eric Abner, a spokesman for the Tennis Channel, said, "We are in discussions, but there is no agreement right now." Chris Widmaier, a spokesman for the USTA, said the organization is currently negotiating with "a number of different parties about the cable package for 2009" and beyond.

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