Tennis

Sky is the limit as Challenger events launched in China

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-27 09:45

Sky is the limit as Challenger events launched in China

Brad Drewett, ATP's international group chief executive,file photo. [Photo/sohu.com]

BEIJING - The sky's the limit for the growth of tennis in China over the next decade as the focus shifts towards the development of Chinese players, the ATP's international group chief executive, Brad Drewett, said on Tuesday.

While the eyes of the tennis world were firmly fixed on Roland Garros, Drewett was 8,000 kilometers away at a suburban Beijing sports center getting ready to take center stage at the launch of China's first Challenger Tour event.

The former Australian Open junior champion has watched the growth of the sport in China at the professional level over the past decade to the point at which it now boasts two top tournaments in the Shanghai Masters and Beijing's China Open.

"China is an incredible opportunity and the ATP has been well-established here for a long time," Drewett said before the launch ceremony.

"The popularity of tennis has grown exponentially here over the past five to 10 years.

"That growth will continue but the important thing about this program is to have young players coming through who will hopefully be playing on the final weekend in either the China Open or the Shanghai Masters.

"If that happens, I really think the sky's the limit."

There are more than 150 Challenger events staged around the world, a series which gives athletes identified as having talent by the local federations a chance to hone their skills and earn enough ranking points to play on the main ATP Tour.

Drewett said August's inaugural Beijing tournament was just the start and the ATP ultimately envisaged having a whole swing in China.

"It's a very important feeder program into the main tour," he said, managing to make himself heard above the boom of the music that would later feature in the typically glitzy launch ceremony.

"The Challenger Tour is where young players can find out if they have the future to move to the big leagues on the main tour."

The two top guests at the ceremony were women, multiple Olympic champion in the table version of tennis, Deng Yaping, and the head of the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA), Sun Jinfang.

The nation's former leader Mao Zedong once famously said that women "hold up half the sky" but in professional tennis they have claimed far more than 50 percent of China's success.

Chinese women have won Olympic and Grand Slam doubles titles over the past six years while Li Na and Zheng Jie have made the most significant breakthroughs in singles by reaching semifinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Crucially for the ATP, a breakthrough on the men's side has not materialized and currently only Zhang Ze (339) and Zeng Shaoxuan (440) occupy positions inside the top 500 in the singles rankings.

Drewett believes it is just a matter of time.

"I don't think there's any science behind junior development whether it be on why one country develops players at a certain time and another one doesn't, and the same goes for men and women," he said.

"I don't think it's a matter of if, it's a matter of when. There are fantastic athletes here in China, in the Olympic sports, in football and basketball, so we know the athletes are here, it's just a matter of those athletes coming into the tennis program and being developed."

Reuters