MUMBAI: Ten Sports has extended its agreement for exclusive broadcast of the US Open tennis event with a new multi-year deal. The tournament, to be played at Flushing Meadows in New York from 28 August to 10 September, will be available live and exclusive throughout the Indian sub-continent on the channel.

Ten Sports, which also holds the rights of French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season, showed the US Open for the first time in 2005. The channel, in an official release, claims that it locked up the rights now on the basis of the terrific viewers' response from across the sub-continent.

Says Taj Television CEO Chris McDonald, "We have had a fantastic association with the USTA and the US Open and are very excited to be able to strengthen it further still. Along with the French Open, we now exclusively broadcast two of the four Grand Slams."

"We are very pleased that Ten Sports, through Total Sports Asia, will continue telecasting the US Open throughout the Indian Sub-continent," says USTA chief business officer Pierce O'Neil.

"With the emergence of Sania Mirza and the record ratings on Ten Sports last year along with the many new worldwide stars, we are confident the US Open Tennis Championships will continue to be extremely popular on Ten Sports," he adds.