Thought Equity Opens the Vault on Australian Open Video History

Classic Australian Open matches can now be viewed by tennis fans around the world free of charge at the AOTV Vault.

This video archive – vault.australianopentv.com – showcases 113 full length matches and memorable moments from 1998 to 2011, featuring great champions of Melbourne Park including Andre Agassi, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras and Marat Safin. Relive great moments, such as:

• Roger Federer’s 2011 semifinal against Novak Djokovic when the Serb came out firing against the four-time Swiss champion.  http://bit.ly/vN4xia
• Marat Safin’s five-set struggle over Andre Agassi in 2004 when the powerful Russian claimed a crucial service break midway through the fifth to hang on for a 7-6(6) 7-6(6) 1-6 6-3 triumph. http://bit.ly/vGvZjw
• Czech Petr Korda’s remarkable five-set comeback over the more fancied Swede Jonas Bjorkman in the 1998 quarterfinals. http://bit.ly/uGMDNO
• Martina Hingis’ wily outfoxing of Conchita Martinez in 1998 to capture the women’s final in a match that featured plenty of finesse and angles. http://bit.ly/s6zuFv

The AOTV Vault also features blockbusters from recent years, such as Rafael Nadal’s classic five-set semifinal (2009) against compatriot Fernando Verdasco, Patrick Rafter’s heartbreaking semifinal loss to Andre Agassi on a steamy Saturday night (2001) and the 4:34 am finish of the third round clash between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis (2008).

“In a year when we are celebrating many anniversaries at Melbourne Park, this is a timely and exciting addition to our video offering,” said Tennis Australia CEO Steve Wood.  “The bank of videos we publish will continue to grow and tennis fans worldwide will reap the benefits of this wonderful asset from the Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific.”

Each match comes with full commentary and users can search the vault by player, year, championship matches, comebacks or great upsets. Each match has been curated so that users can easily find important moments whether searching for highlights, set points, match points, break points, cracking aces, epic rallies and sensational winners. They can also share moments with friends via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

The AOTV Vault has been developed for Tennis Australia in partnership with Thought Equity Motion, a leading provider of video management and licensing services that has powered successful videoplatforms for a range of major sports rights holders globally. Thought Equity Motion will work with Tennis Australia to manage and curate both archival and future matches, enabling them for a range of uses globally via its T3 Platform. These include web access and research, delivery to third parties, master quality backup, and rich new consumer experiences such as the AOTV Vault.

“The AOTV Vault represents a great showpiece for how we’re working with Tennis Australia to unlock new access to these great matches,” said Kevin Schaff, CEO and Founder of Thought Equity Motion. “Our T3 Platform technology and metadata tools have allowed us to add rich interaction to this popular historic content and publish it in new and exciting ways of which fans around the world just can’t seem to get enough.”