By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The United State Tennis Association announced a landmark television deal Tuesday that it hopes will boost the sport's image and pique interest in tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open at the end of August.

Greater Cincinnati's Western & Southern Financial Group Masters is part of the 10-tournament U.S. Open Series unveiled in New York. The tournament in Mason won't gain additional television coverage - it already receives 30 hours of broadcasts - but the final will move from ESPN to CBS in 2005.

The W&S Masters is one of two ATP Masters tournaments between Wimbledon in June and the U.S. Open.

"We were important in making this happen," W&S Masters chairman Paul Flory said. "That made us somebody they wanted. ... I can say, it will be good for our event."

More than two years in the making, the U.S. Open Series is a combined effort incorporating CBS, ESPN and NBC to create a more cohesive hardcourt series beginning this summer. The 10 men's and women's tournaments will be televised nationally over six weeks, culminating with the U.S. Open Aug. 30-Sept 12.

The deal is for four years at a cost of $3 million per year to the USTA, with an option for three more years. The U.S. Open Series will award double prize money to the series winner at the U.S. Open beginning in 2005, and a 50 percent bonus this year.

"I expect this to result in good ratings and more fans and more stars," said USTA president Alan Schwartz. "Bringing in the Cincinnati Masters event was critical to getting it done. Cincinnati has been a leading light between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and will shine even brighter now."

Moving the W&S final match to network television in 2005 is a boost, Flory said.

"Network television is prestigious," Flory said.

Cincinnati is hosting a women's tournament, the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open Aug. 16-22, for the first time since 1988 but it is not part of the U.S. Open Series.

The men's tournament remains part of the ATP Masters Series, an elite group of nine tournaments and four Grand Slams. Along with the Tennis Masters Canada July 26-Aug. 1, the summer Masters events receive 60 hours of television coverage. The other seven U.S. Open series events will share 40 additional hours, and the U.S. Open gets 140 hours of broadcasts, creating a record-total of 240 hours of tennis broadcast this summer, according to the USTA.

The U.S. Open Series

Date	Tournament	City	Tour
July 12	Bank of the West Classic	Stanford, Calif.	WTA
July 12	Mercedes-Benz Cup	Los Angeles	ATP
July 19	RCA Championships	Indianapolis	ATP
July 19	JP Morgan Chase Open	Los Angeles	WTA
July 26	Tennis Masters Canada	Toronto	ATP
Aug. 2	Rogers Cup	Montreal	WTA
Aug. 2	W&SFG Masters	Cincinnati	ATP
Aug. 16	Legg Mason Tennis Classic	Washington D.C.	ATP
Aug. 23	Pilot Pen Tennis	New Haven, Conn.	WTA
Aug. 30	U.S. Open	New York	ITF

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E-mail ddow@enquirer.com