French Open: Ash Barty- Tennis Australia Former World No.1 Ash Barty’s untimely exit from the Tennis arena has boiled down heavily on Tennis Australia. In fact, they are shattered after losing unprecedented TV rights deal worth 500 million ASD that they were reliant on Barty’s wild popularity. The 25-year-old dropped a bombshell by retiring at the age of 25 after becoming the first Australian to win Australian Open since 1978. Follow all the live updates on InsideSport.IN
French Open: Australian Open champion Ash Barty’s RETIREMENT costs Tennis Australia 500m AUD TV rights deal- check out
(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)- Channel 9 witnessed an unprecedented rise in ratings as Ash Barty and Rafael Nadal won the singles title while Nick Kyrgios won the men’s doubles trophy with Thanasi Kokkinakis.
- The women’s singles Australian Open final featuring Ash Barty and Danielle Collins turned out to be the most-watched women’s final since 1999. It registered an online audience of 4.2 million.
- Tennis Australia were preparing to jack up its broadcast rights on the back of Barty’s dominance. They were keen to win the Australian Open rights with Channel 7 as they looked to steal the cricket rights from Channel 9 in 2018.
- With Ash Barty no longer a part of the top-flight tennis tournament, there is uncertainty about the next broadcast rights negotiations. Channel 9 have only a couple of years to run in their current TV rights agreements (till 2025)
- The Australian Open rights are currently 60 million ASD which is unlikely to increase until the next deal in 2025, reported The Australian.
French Open: Australian Open champion Ash Barty’s RETIREMENT costs Tennis Australia 500m AUD TV rights deal- check out
Barty won the French Open in 2019, 2021 Wimbledon and 2022 Australian Open. She was World No.1 for consecutive 114 weeks, fourth-longest streak in WTA Tour only behind Steffi Graf (186 weeks), Serena Williams (186) and Martina Navratilova (156).
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