The famed Wimbledon tennis tournament will stay on NBC through 2011 after the network and the All England Club agreed to a four-year contract extension.

This is the 39th consecutive year NBC has aired the grass-court Grand Slam. “We are delighted that our long partnership with NBC Sports is to continue,” All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said in a statement on Thursday.

ESPN, which is the fifth and final year of its Wimbledon deal, also is nearing an extension, an executive for the cable broadcaster told the Associated Press.

NBC is part of Universal City-based NBC Universal, owned by General Electric Co. ESPN is a division of Burbank-based Walt Disney Co.