THE SONY ERICSSON OPEN BOASTS ANOTHER RECORD YEAR

Written by: Staff on 1st April 2012

THE SONY ERICSSON OPEN BOASTS ANOTHER RECORD YEAR

Mardy Fish of the United States returns to Alejandro Falla of Colombia in their men's second round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 18 January 2012. Falla won the match. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

MIAMI, Fla. (www.sonyericssonopen.com) – The 2012 Sony Ericsson Open was once again the hottest ticket in Miami. With great weather, the biggest names in tennis and an atmosphere suited for both family fun and the party crowd the tournament boasted another record year.

The Sony Ericsson Open set an all-time attendance record for the fifth time in six years with 325,000 guests visiting the Tennis Center at Crandon Park over the last two weeks. The event boasted a record 14 session sellouts and set five session attendance records.

The two big stories coming out of the event in 2012 was the announcement that the 2013 tournament will be named Sony Open (Tennis) and the $1 million upgrade to the player areas inside the stadium.

On March 30, Sony Mobile Communications announced it would be changing the name of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to Sony Open (Tennis), starting in 2013. The name reflects the company’s new brand and name after Sony Ericsson became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony in February of this year.

“The Sony Open tennis tournament enables us to introduce Sony’s XperiaTM smartphones to a broad and influential consumer audience in the areas of sports and entertainment,” said Stephan Croix, VP, Head of Marketing Creation at Sony Mobile Communications. “The tournament is a perfect platform to bring the excitement of Sony’s connected entertainment experiences to athletes, fans and consumers and offer them an opportunity to get their hands on the latest Sony products.”

The tournament also renovated the player areas including doubling the size of the locker rooms, creating new lounge areas and enlarging the Player Dining area and Player Lounge. Overall the improvements were well received by the players.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova. “There are lots of new things, including a very nice locker room. We are really happy and it’s more comfortable for us.”

Former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki added, “The locker rooms are bigger and newer, there’s a bigger player lounge, a bigger dining area. It’s great.”

The Sony Ericsson Open is truly and international event with visitors coming from all over the world, and vacation packages were once again a hot commodity. For the third year in a row the tournament sold out of its 403 packages. Overall more than 14,700 room nights were booked directly through the tournament.

This year the Sony Ericsson Open took the social media community by storm hosting several contests on its social media channels, Twitter and Facebook interviews with many of the game’s top players, and posting exclusive videos and photos. The event is the first tennis event outside of the Grand Slams with more than 100,000 likes while its twitter page has now surpassed 17,000 followers.

The Sony Ericsson Open also continued its tradition of providing guests with a total entertainment experience. The food and beverage options on site were once again a big hit among guests. In partnership with Great Performances, the official food and beverage provider of the tournament, the Sony Ericsson Open gave visitors more choices than ever before including barbeque, Papa John’s Pizza, burritos, crepes, traditional Cuban and South American food as well as deli sandwiches.

Fans looking to relax in-between matches were able to visit the Veuve Clicqout Champaign and Sushi Bar, the Bombay Sapphire Lounge or the Corona Beach House. The member’s only Collectors Club presented by Nespresso was also extremely providing its members

True to form, the Sony Ericsson Open was a global event with over 500 credentials issued to media from 32 countries.

Both the men’s and women’s finals were broadcast live on CBS. The tournament’s early rounds were broadcast on TennisChannel and ESPN2. Overall the tournament received 73.5 hours of domestic television coverage.

For the fourth consecutive year the Sony Ericsson Open took to the streets of Miami to bring tennis to people. The tournament hosted events at Coconut Grove (March 22) and Mary Brickell Village (March 23) featuring video boards, player appearances and interactive games.

The 2013 Sony Open will take place March 18-31.