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Top Tennis Players Star at China Open

The world's top tennis superstars will begin "service" on September 12 at the Beijing Tennis Centre with the opening of the second China Open professional and juniors tennis tournament.

Tournament Director Ekkehard Rathgeber, who also works as the chief operating officer at TOM Group Limited, said that although defending men's ATP champion Marat Safin will not participate in this year's event, defending WTA champion Serena Williams will lead a list of tennis superstars who will, including her sister, 2005 Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.

Other stars heading to Beijing are Rafael Nadal, Guillermo Coria, and Lindsay Davenport.

The China Open's men's competition runs from September 12 to 18 and the women's competition from September 19 to 25. Juniors tennis competitions also take place during the September 12-25 period.

Rathgeber said, "Marat Safin is not coming, but with the world's top stars cast it's still worth the wait." No explanation was given for 2000's world No. 1 Safin's no-show.

"A strong star cast is always the core of any kind of tournaments," Rathgeber said.

He said the tournament's organizers have established inviting the world's top players as their No.1 task. The line-up for this year's event is already impressive, but Rathgeber said he expects more big names to commit to the tournament in coming days.

Still, French Open champion Rafael Nadal and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, who rarely competes in the same tournaments as her sister Serena, will head an all-star cast for the 2005 China Open. Also expected are Athens Olympic gold-medal doubles winners Li Ting and Sun Tiantian who will carry the nation's hopes. More than 200 players will participate in the tournament which is officially sanctioned by the ATP and WTA professional tennis tours. They will be joined by the ITF (International Tennis Federation), featuring China's top junior boy and girl tennis players competing for their championships.

   "And that's best of the China Open, you know, the combination of all games," Rathgeber said.

For Chinese players, playing at home helps them gain a big advantage. Three wild cards are granted to Chinese players, but whether they can make the best of it at this year's event remains to be seen.

To visualize its ambition of becoming one of the world's top-five tennis tournaments, along with Wimbledon, the US, French and Australian opens and to make it Asia's premier annual sports event, TOM Group is doing its utmost to prepare for this year's event. They are being assisted by the IMG (International Management Group), which is focusing on corporate marketing and sponsorship programmes.

Organisers, including the China National Ministry of Sport and the Beijing Municipal Government, lead by Minister of General Administration of Sport Liu Peng and Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan, are working hard to promote the China Open worldwide, in a sports-marketing arena where star players can make or break an event. For instance, some short films are being produced by China's CCTV and online interactive programmes are being prepared by tournament sponsor Sohu.Com.

At the "tennis village" at the Beijing Tennis Centre, public tennis lessons will also be given, and tennis fans will have a chance to close to their idols, buy souvenirs, participate on other recreational activities or simply relax and eat and drink the afternoon away. 

The organizers of the China Open continue to believe that it has a strong, viable financial future within the sports-marketing industry of China. It is expected to expand by the year. TOM Group, which recently purchased 100-percent rights to host the tournament, has faith that the China Open will become profitable within three years.

When asked how they could be sure that the stars would like to come to China and play and why the committee has such faith in the event's future, Rathgeber shrugged his shoulder and said: "Because, you know, it's China. For any sponsors and any sports player, China itself is a brand name and every effort is just worthwhile. Still, in order to get it expanded and to keep it going, possessing only a brand is hardly enough. To get a concept right is the next step; we will start to prepare for next year's Open just on September 26 right after this year's even concludes. For now, China itself is a concept and we must work on building a solid foundation."

Rathgeber said improvements have been made concerning broadcasting this year's China Open. The broadcast distribution for the event, carried on CCTV-5 last year, will be expanded. Millions of more people across China and around the world will be able to view the top games live.

"People from other countries can watch the event on CCTV, Star TV, or via media in Argentina, Spain or the Middle East," Rathgeber said.

The support of the General Administration of Sport and Beijing Municipality is considered essential.

Sun Kanglin, director of the Beijing Sports Bureau, said, "The China Open is Beijing's own brand. Tournaments such as the Tennis Masters Cup do not belong to any city; it's a worldwide brand. To shape a brand for Beijing, the China Open was the best choice, and we are going to build it step by step.