SERENA Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka plus other top female tennis players in the world now have a new home, as SportsMax will broadcast the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour to the Caribbean audience starting this year through to 2016.

International Media Content Ltd (IMC), SportsMax’s parent, has signed a four-year agreement with Swedish rights company IEC in Sports for the broadcast rights to the WTA.

As the new broadcast partner of the WTA in the region, SportsMax will broadcast 22 tournaments per year, including all semi-finals and final matches from the WTA tournaments. SportsMax’s coverage is scheduled to serve up on February 15 with the Qatar Total Open featuring all top 10 WTA ranked players. The strong field will be led by this year’s Australian Open champion and defending Qatar Open champion Victoria Azarenka, two-time Qatar Open champion Maria Sharapova, plus Grand Slam and Olympics champions Venus and Serena Williams, and 2011 Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova.

SportsMax Marketing Manager Tanya Lee believes this will allow the tennis fan base to see more tennis than is currently available regionally. “The WTA Tennis with a list of high profile players will be a great addition to our already strong line-up of football, cricket, track and field, and boxing programming,” Lee stated. “We continue to build on the best sports line-up on television in the Caribbean, as we look to cater to all sports lovers.”

Along with the WTA rights through 2016, SportsMax’s parent IMC is the regional rights holder of premium content such as Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FIFA Soccer, West Indies away tours, Ashes, Indian Premier League and IAAF Grand Prix Meets. The 2013 WTA season includes Tennis Championships in Qatar, Istanbul, Dubai, Miami, Rome, and Tokyo, among others from February 15 to October 27, 2013.