Intercollegiate Tennis Association And Oracle Announce Multi-Year Alliance Extension

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Jun 21, 2018, 08:00 ET

TEMPE, Ariz. and REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., June 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Intercollegiate Tennis Association and Oracle are excited to announce a multi-year extension to their alliance, as Oracle continues to strengthen its ongoing commitment to collegiate tennis.

The Oracle ITA alliance includes Oracle's ongoing sponsorship of the Oracle ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, the Oracle ITA Masters and Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, while adding title sponsorships to the ITA Summer Circuit (now branded as the Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered By UTR) and the Division I and Division III National Team Indoor Championships.

''Our partnership with ITA has been a great success to date, and we're eager to keep expanding the game,'' said Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. "We want to ensure that young players understand that collegiate tennis offers terrific opportunities to improve their games, play in great venues in a team environment, all while getting an education that will serve them well for the rest of their lives."

ITA CEO Timothy Russell added, "The ITA is thrilled to be continuing our wonderful working relationship with Oracle; an incredibly innovative company with an astonishing forward-thinking CEO. Both parties are committed to positively shaping the future of college tennis. Oracle's attention to creating events of high distinction, in which the best players in college want to participate and fans want to watch, either in person or from the comfort of their own home via television and live streaming, is elevating our game."

The newly-christened Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR will serve as a model for level-based play in the near 50 tournaments contested during the Summer Circuit's six-week duration. The Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR, which began in 1993, provides college tennis players, along with junior players, alumni and young aspiring professionals, the opportunity to compete in organized events during the summer months. For the third consecutive year, the Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR will feature nearly 50 tournaments across 23 different states, during a six-week stretch from late June to the end of July. The circuit will culminate at the ITA National Summer Championships, hosted by TCU from August 10-14, which will feature prize money for the first time.

"The ITA Summer Circuit is yet another great opportunity to influence the quality of American tennis and Oracle is excited to play a part in it," said Hurd. "The summer circuit is the ideal opportunity for all players, from collegians to juniors, to play competitively year-round."

Oracle will now have an expanded presence in the dual-match portion of the college tennis schedule by becoming the title sponsor of all four National Team Indoor Championships. Contested during the months of February and March, the Oracle ITA National Team Indoor Championships feature 16 of the nation's top men's and women's teams from Division I, and eight highly-ranked men's and women's Division III teams vying for a national indoor title.

"We are excited that Oracle will serve as the title sponsor for the National Team Indoor Championships," said Russell. "The National Team Indoor Championships feature elite fields and stand as a good season-opening barometer for how the dual-match season will play out."

Serving as the culmination to the fall season, the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships will take place November 1-5, 2018, at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Surprise, Arizona, which recently hosted the 2018 NCAA Division II National Championships and previously hosted the 2016 ITA Small College Championships.

The Oracle ITA National Fall Championships features 128 of the nation's top collegiate singles players (64 men and 64 women) and 64 doubles teams (32 men's team and 32 women's teams). In its second year, having replaced the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, it is the lone event on the collegiate tennis calendar to feature competitors from all five divisions playing in the same tournament.

Created in 2015, the Oracle ITA Masters has established itself as one of the premier events of the collegiate tennis season. The Oracle ITA Masters features singles draws of 32 for men and women, and a mixed doubles event with a 32-draw. Players are chosen based upon conference representation, similar to the NCAA Tournament.

About the ITA
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is committed to serving college tennis and returning the leaders of tomorrow. As the governing body of college tennis, the ITA oversees women's and men's varsity tennis at NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College divisions. The ITA administers a comprehensive awards and rankings program for men's and women's varsity players, coaches and teams in all divisions, providing recognition for their accomplishments on and off the court. For more information on the ITA, visit the ITA website at www.itatennis.com, like the ITA on Facebook or follow @ITA_Tennis on Twitter and Instagram.

About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

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SOURCE Oracle