British Eurosport will broadcast live coverage of Great Britain’s Fed Cup tie against Sweden this weekend.
Following their successful Euro/Africa Zone Group I wins over Portugal, Netherlands, Israel and Austria in February, the British team will play an away tie in Boras, Sweden in the World Group II Play-offs on April 21-22.
Elena Baltacha, Anne Keothavong, Laura Robson and Heather Watson were the members of the victorious GB team in February which was captained for the first time by Judy Murray.
It will Great Britain’s first tie outside of the gruelling 15-team Euro/Africa Zone Group I for eight years, where they claimed one of the two available qualifying spots.
Murray has named an unchanged team for this weekend’s tie, where the winners will earn promotion into World Group II, the second tier of the Fed Cup (the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup).
David Kerr, Managing Director of Eurosport UK, said: “We are delighted to have been able to add coverage of the Fed Cup tie against Sweden to our extensive tennis coverage on British Eurosport.
“The victories in Israel were great for British tennis and we wanted to make sure that we gave our tennis viewers the chance to continue to support Judy Murray and the team in Sweden as they seek to qualify for World Group II in 2013.”
Sweden have two top-100 players in Johanna Larsson (62) and Sofia Arvidsson (74), but no-one else inside the world’s top 500.
While Great Britain has two players within the top 1000 – Baltacha (61) and Keothavong (89) – with Watson (109) and Robson (120) close behind.
Eurosport’s deal to show the tie was agreed with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Lawn Tennis Association.
Jan Menneken, the ITF’s Executive Commercial Director, said: “This is great news for British Fed Cup fans who will be able to watch their team compete against Sweden live on British Eurosport with the winner achieving promotion to Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group II.”
Live and exclusive coverage of the Great Britain versus Sweden Fed Cup tie begins at 1pm on Saturday 21st April on British Eurosport 2, continuing the next day on British Eurosport from 10am.
British Eurosport is scheduled to screen around 1,200 hours of tennis coverage in 2012, including the Australian, French and US Open tournaments, ATP and WTA Tour events, along with Great Britain’s Davis and Fed Cup ties.
They also added exclusive coverage of Davis Cup World Group ties to their line-up earlier this year, which were previously shown on Sky Sports.
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Fed Cup – Sweden v Great Britain LIVE on British Eurosport Match schedule Saturday 21st April – Day 1 – Singles Johanna Larsson (SWE) v Elena Baltacha (GBR) Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) v Anne Keothavong (GBR) LIVE – 1pm-4pm – British Eurosport 2 Sunday 22nd April – Day 2 – Singles / Doubles Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) v Elena Baltacha (GBR) Johanna Larsson (SWE) v Anne Keothavong (GBR) Arvidsson / Larsson (SWE) v Watson / Robson (GBR) LIVE – 10am-2pm – British Eurosport . .
