ESPN announced today that it will televise U.S. Open tennis beginning in 2009, becoming the first channel ever to have the rights to all four Grand Slam events.
The deal is worth $140 million over six years, according to Sports Business Journal, and includes the rights to the Olympus U.S. Open Series tournaments.

Cable network USA has held the rights to the U.S. Open for years and has been well-received by tennis fans. But this deal with ESPN looks like it will also be a good one. Consider that ESPN2 will show live matches in the tournament's first week from 1 p.m. until the end of play. The second week will have a four-hour window on Labor Day between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.; the rest of the second week will have live coverage from 11 a.m. until the end of play, or more than 12 consecutive hours.

Meanwhile, ESPN.360 will show live coverage of all courts during ESPN2's television window.

CBS still holds the rights to most weekend coverage including the men's and women's semifinals and finals.

With all of that live tennis, there's a good chance fans will see some drama. But the network will have a tough time topping its coverage of this year's Australian Open, when it blew through two schedule breaks to show nearly 15 straight hours of live tennis. The coverage included Lleyton Hewitt's five-set win over Marcos Baghdatis that ended at 4:32 a.m. Melbourne time.