Russian state broadcaster VGTRK has acquired media rights for the WTA Championships, the season-ending tournament of the Women’s Tennis Association, and has not discounted agreeing a broader deal for the WTA Tour.
The Sports.ru website said that regular-season WTA tournaments had not been given broadcast coverage in Russia this year.
However, VGTRK has acquired the rights to the ongoing WTA Championships for its Sport 1 channel after pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus declined to bid.
Asked if the agreement may lead to VGTRK broadcasting next season’s WTA Tour, director of sports Alexander Taschin said: “I cannot exclude this. It is possible, but it all depends on the price.”
He added: “In this particular case, with the final tennis tournament it came at a (reasonable) cost for a most prestigious competition. We came to the conclusion that for Sport 1 it will be good.”
The WTA Championships began in Istanbul on Tuesday and will run through to Sunday. Russia’s world No.3, Maria Sharapova, is not competing due to injury. The country has a total of six players inside the top 30 of the WTA rankings.