SAP and the Women’s Tennis Association Announce Global Relationship to Transform Tennis Experience With Innovative Technology for Fans, Players, Media

SAP NEWSBYTE - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced a multi-year global relationship with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), a global leader in women’s professional sports. SAP and the WTA will collaborate to transform the sport, aiming to develop innovative technology and apps to further engage fans, offer players the tools to analyze performance and optimize strategy, and better serve the media. In addition, SAP is an official partner of the prestigious WTA Championships, to be held in Istanbul in 2013 and Singapore in 2014.

“Through our cooperation with SAP, we aim to provide revolutionary analysis for our fans, players, coaches and media,” said Stacey Allaster, CEO and chairman, WTA. “We are thrilled to be teaming with a global, innovative leader like SAP as international companies continue investing in women’s professional tennis.”

SAP is hoping to work with the WTA to develop solutions that enhance and grow the sport, focusing on on-court player performance in the first phase, with future plans to broaden to fans and media. SAP plans to provide information and cutting-edge analytics to players and coaches post-match. For example, the statistics could offer telling insight into tactics during a rally. Not only would this allow players to dissect and analyze their own game, it could also be used to highlight potential weaknesses in opponents and reflect tactics successfully used against them in the past.

Through its sports collaborations, SAP delivers analytics and insights to players, coaches and the media and helps fans experience their passion in new and exciting ways.

“SAP has a longstanding commitment to the sport of tennis, and the WTA provides an excellent platform for SAP to demonstrate this on a global scale,” said Steve Peck, senior vice president, Global Strategic Initiatives, SAP AG. “Our innovative technology is transforming sports and entertainment around the world and we look forward to working with the WTA to help players and coaches to perform at a higher level and engage fans like never before.”

SAP is also the current mobile app provider at the Sony Open tennis tournament, has ambassador relationships with former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick and rising star Milos Raonic and was the proud title sponsor of the SAP Open men’s tournament from 2005 to 2013.

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.