Tennis in China: Cultural evolution
Tennis is a rapidly growing sport in China that has received much private and public support. Today, it has become firmly entrenched in the Chinese consciousness as one of the most popular sports in the country. Tennis is now the third-most popular sport on television in China, behind Association football and basketball. There are 30,000 tennis courts and an estimated 14 million people in China play tennis regularly, up from 1 million when the sport returned to the Olympics 1988 according to the WTA Tour. The Chinese government is aiming to increase that by 15 percent every year. The national tennis market has reached $4 billion annually. Played at the Beijing Olympic Tennis Center with a total of $6.6 million in prize money and a main stadium that holds 10,000 spectators, the China Open is now one of the WTA’s top four tournaments. The ATP’s other flagship tournament in Asia is the $3.24 million Shanghai Masters (上海大师赛).
China open rating tour
The China Open Rating Tour (CRT) is to be launched in April 2009. This tour aims to spur greater interest in tennis at the grassroots level and is a new national amateur tennis league. The CRT is divided into 3 levels of proficiency to sharpen its competitive edge, similar to boxing competition with different weight classes. What’s more, it will be divided into six regions, with seven cities hosting competition. The regions and cities include: North –Beijing (北京), Northeast- Shenyang (沈阳), Central-Wuhan (武汉), East-Shanghai (上海), South-Guangzhou (广州) and West-Kunming (昆明) and Chengdu (成都).
Chinese notable players
Chinese women have won Olympic and Grand Slam doubles titles over the last 6 year. Li Na (李娜) and Zheng Jie (郑洁) have made the most significant breakthroughs in singles by reaching semifinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Li is the heroine of the country because she was the first Chinese player to break into top 10 of the women’s game and win a singles grand slam in 2011 at the French Open. Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won the women’s doubles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics Games. Then in 2006, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi became the country’s first Grand Slam Champions, taking the women’s doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (北京), Zheng and Yan got a bronze medal in the women’s double.
Famous international tennis equipment brands：Wilson and Head
Tennis has become more and more famous and popular with each passing day since its emergence as a modern sport. Tennis brand refers to the popular tennis brands equipment and other tennis accessories. Since the middle of nineteenth century, a number of companies across the globe have been manufacturing and supplying various tennis products to the global market of tennis. Currently there are many tennis brands in the world. With the growing popularity of tennis, a huge market for tennis has been established all over the globe. To use the opportunity to the fullest, many companies started producing items related to tennis. Currently, there are innumerable companies, both big and small, that specialize in manufacturing tennis products like tennis racquets, tennis balls, tennis nets, strings, tennis shirts, skirts, hats, shoes, socks and many other things. Tennis brands are famous all over the world. Both the players and fans of tennis strive for branded tennis items. The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is a sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois and currently is a foreign subsidiary of the Finnish company Amer Sports. Wilson makes equipment for many sports, among them badminton, baseball, basketball, softball, golf, racquetball, soccer, tennis and volleyball. Head is a sports equipment clothing company, known mainly for their alpine skis and tennis racquets.
Daxue Consulting Market Study in China
Sources:
Picture: Li Na
