China is stepping up efforts to take advantage of professional tennis tournaments held in the country to catalyze its social and economic development.
Recently, with the commencement of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Juniors World Tennis Tour J300, the professional tennis season in China has officially kicked off.
From September to November, nine tour events including the China Open, Shanghai Masters, Wuhan Open, Ningbo Open, and Guangzhou Open, will be held consecutively across multiple cities nationwide.
In the past, the China match season generally referred to the collective term for a series of professional tennis events held in China during the transition period between summer and autumn each year.
This season, however, the Tennis Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China has consolidated nine tournaments under the official "China Season" brand.
The match season will span from Beijing, Chengdu, and Hangzhou in September to Jiujiang and Hong Kong in November.
Bai Xilin, director of the Tennis Administration Center, said the country aims to harness the tournaments to boost economic development.
"By building a national brand for the China Open season, we want to learn from the four major championships to push societal development and promote economic growth. Through our tournament brand, we want to drive urban development. In the future, we aspire to establish the world's fifth major tennis championship," he said.
As a crucial stop before the year-end finals, matches in China will undoubtedly attract the world's top players.
The China Open, whose main draw begins on September 24, has already drawn 14 Grand Slam champions.
As the inaugural rotating host city since the launch of the "China Season" brand, Beijing will collaborate with eight sister cities to jointly kick off the future promotion of the upcoming events.
"As the inaugural and most crucial stop, we aim to pioneer exemplary approaches across all aspects of our work. By elevating the spectacle, we seek to create a richer experience. Since the core remains the tournament itself, we intend to leverage this momentum and policy support to expand and strengthen China's tennis market, thereby driving overall economic growth," said Li Xuhua, general manager of China Open Tennis Sports Promotion Co., Ltd.
Through collaborative efforts such as integrated ticketing, consolidated sponsorship recruitment, and joint promotion across the various tournament stops, the initiative will further unlock the potential of sports consumption and empower local economic and social development.
It is expected that over the nearly two-month duration of this year's "China Season" tennis circuit, the nine tournaments will attract over one million spectators, driving related spending in catering, accommodation, and other sectors to exceed 2 billion yuan (about 281 million U.S. dollars).
China to harness professional tennis tournaments to boost economic, social development
