Category Exhibition Draw 4-8 players | Surface Hard Indoor Website Official website | |
Location Manhattan, New York
United States Venue Madison Square Garden (2008-present) | ||
The BNP Paribas Showdown (formerly NetJets Showdown, Billie Jean King Cup) is a one-night tennis event operated by GF Sports and held at Madison Square Garden in New York City each February or March since 2008.
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The Showdown is part of World Tennis Day, an initiative to increase tennis participation around the world. The event serves as the kick-off to the tennis season in North America, with the USTA running thousands of clinics across the country throughout the spring. The event format has changed from year-to-year including male and female current and retired players playing singles and doubles.
Some of the greatest players of all-time have taken part in the BNP Paribas Showdown including: Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Pete Sampras, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Bob & Mike Bryan.
The 2017 Showdown will include Venus Williams, Garbine Muguruza, Juan Martin del Potro, Kei Nishikori, Jack Sock, Nick Kyrgios, Andy Roddick, & Lleyton Hewitt.
Event History
The BNP Paribas Showdown is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2017. In 2008, the event was known as the NetJets Showdown, the return of tennis to Madison Square Garden after almost a decade hiatus. A sold-out crowd saw Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, arguably considered the two greatest players in history at the time, face-off. Federer defeated Sampras in a classic, 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(6).
2009 marked the inaugural year of the Billie Jean King Cup and the first time women's tennis had been played at Madison Square Garden since 2000, when the year-ending Chase Championships were held there. The event featured Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Janković. Serena Williams won her semifinal match against Ana Ivanovic 6–3, and Venus Williams won hers 6–4 against Jelena Janković. The final was won by Serena 6–4, 6–3. The Billie Jean King Cup returned in 2010 and was won by Venus Williams.
In 2011, the event was renamed the BNP Paribas Showdown and was a celebration of American tennis legends and two of the greatest rivalries in the sport's history: Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe and Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. From 2011 to 2016, several other Grand Slam champions and former World No. 1's have played at the Garden.
In 2013, the BNP Paribas Showdown event was expanded and began to held in Hong Kong for the first time. That event was also played in 2014. In 2014, the Showdown expanded from New York and Hong Kong and was played in London.
Tennis Night in America (TNIA)
In 2009, Tennis Night in America launched as one of the USTA's top national marketing initiatives designed to increase grassroots tennis participation across the country. The promotion underscored a "National Junior Tennis Registration Night" at over 700 locations on March 2, the date of the 2009 Showdown at Madison Square Garden, which also coincided with the start of the professional tennis season in North America.
Connecting grassroots tennis with professional tennis, Tennis Night in America was able to deliver the 2009 Showdown via closed circuit television to tennis clubs throughout the country, allowing one night in March to bring together tennis players of all ages and abilities, as they pay tribute to the game that they love so much.
The 2017 edition will be played on 6 March 2017, introducing a new "Fast Format" for the 4 matches that will be played. The schedule was announced on 26 October 2016.
World Tennis Day
In 2014, following the success of the 2013 BNP Paribas Showdown in both New York and Hong Kong, StarGames launched World Tennis Day as part of an effort to increase global tennis participation. World Tennis Day is highlighted by international grassroots initiatives and culminates with the BNP Paribas Showdown.