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Zheng Qinwen signs autographs for supporters at the China Open on September 28, 2024 in Beijing. Photo: IC

 
Editor's Note:

Chinese tennis players' stellar performance at major international competitions this year has led to a skyrocketing of enthusiasm in the sport back in China, with audiences filling up domestic tennis events to full capacity and booking tennis courts becoming headaches. Will tennis be the next national sensation? Global Times journalists Lu Wenao and Wu Jie dig into the phenomenon.

(From left) Zhang Zhizhen, Te Rigele, Wu Yibing and Bu Yunchaokete celebrate after winning the Davis Cup World Group II tennis match against Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay, on September 17, 2022. Photo: VCG

Booking a tennis court has become a headache for Yang Qi, who started to play tennis for fun in April in Beijing.

"Booking a tennis court to train was relatively easy before the Summer Olympics," Yang told the Global Times. "I am a late starter in tennis who wants to learn, but I never expected the sport would become so popular."

Even though popularity of tennis had been steadily improving over the years in China, the sudden surge has been mainly attributed to Chinese tennis stars' triumph at the Paris Olympics, as 21-year-old Zheng Qinwen won a sensational women's singles Olympic gold medal, while Zhang Zhizhen and Wang Xinyu finished their mixed doubles campaign with a silver medal.

This year's tennis China swing has received unprecedented attention from the public. The three most prestigious tournaments of the China swing - China Open, Wuhan Open, and Shanghai Masters - have all seen full crowds.

According to China Open's organizing committee, this year's ticket sales have exceeded 80 million yuan ($11.25 million), with sales surpassing the total revenue from the entire 2023 season before the tournament even officially began. 

October 2 witnessed a full capacity crowd at China Open as the day featured the men's singles final, coupled with Zheng Qinwen's appearance. It drew a crowd of 29,000, with over 13,000 fans filling the main Diamond Court at Beijing's National Tennis Centre to 100 percent capacity.

The Shanghai Masters also shattered attendance records, with over 220,000 spectators watching the tournament in person, and over 70 percent of the audience coming from outside of Shanghai.

At the Wuhan Open, held in Zheng's hometown in Hubei Province, women's world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus attributed the near capacity audience at the central court to her rival Zheng's Olympic win.

Fans watch a tennis match at the China Open on September 28, 2024 in Beijing. Photo: IC

Professional heights

Amid the overwhelming enthusiasm fans have for these tournaments, Chinese players have been making waves with remarkable performances, which industry insiders say are the major contributors to the fan fever.

Similar to the surprise achievement of Li Ting and Sun Tiantian's gold medal in the women's doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics, or Li Na's sensational two Grand Slam singles titles in 2011 and 2014, Chinese tennis players have entered a new phase of achieving new breakthroughs.

In men's competitions, at the ATP 250 Chengdu Open, 19-year-old Shang Juncheng claimed his first ATP Tour title, becoming the first male tennis player in the world born after 2005 to win an ATP Tour award. 

At the ATP 250 Hangzhou Open, Zhang Zhizhen, the first male player from the Chinese mainland to be seeded in a Grand Slam event at the Wimbledon Championship, and 22-year-old Bu Yunchaokete made history by setting up an all-Chinese semifinal - an unprecedented moment for Chinese men's tennis.

At the China Open, Bu reached the semifinals by stunning world No.6 Alexander Zverev, setting a new benchmark for Chinese male players at the tournament since 2004. 

The run also launched him into the top 100 in the ATP rankings. Along with Zhang Zhizhen and Shang, 2024 marks the first time three Chinese male players have been included in the ATP top 100. 

Zheng, too, reached her career-best semifinals at the event. By the time the Wuhan Open rolled around, Zheng and Wang Xinyu had both made it to the semifinals, a historic moment for Chinese tennis. 

In the women's competitions, though Zheng ultimately lost to Sabalenka in the Wuhan Open final, she did win her first set against the formidable opponent after four meetings in her career, signaling the hope that she is closer to her mission of conquering the "mountain" that is Sabalenka.

Olympic laureate Zheng, in her third professional season, is set to make her debut at the WTA Finals after a strong presence in Beijing and Wuhan. 

She is the second Chinese singles player to achieve the feat after Li Na. But what is more promising is that Li Na's debut in the WTA came in 2011, three years before her retirement, while Zheng is just 22 years old.

"Zheng is driving tennis to new heights in the country, transforming it into a sport that garners widespread public attention. This shift is significant," Chen Chi, a Beijing-based tennis commentator, told the Global Times. 

"Along with her runner-up finish at the Australian Open earlier this year, Chinese fans are convinced that a Grand Slam title is just a matter of time for Zheng."

Ge Xiaoqian, a tennis columnist, noted to the Global Times that the current tennis momentum was not only catapulted by individual efforts like Zheng's, but also systematic efforts that led to the emergence of Bu, who was born in Northwest China's ­Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region but grew up playing tennis in coastal Zhejiang Province.

Young tennis players in Yinchuan, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Photo: VCG

Expanded training

As both Li Na and Zheng hail from Hubei, many fans are hoping Hubei can become a hot bed for cultivating China's future tennis stars.

When Li clinched her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2014, Zheng was one of the youngsters cheering for her in front of the TV. Now an even bigger talent pool is following in the footsteps of Li and Zheng. 

Jingshan, a county-level city in Hubei, has been officially recognized as the "Tennis City of China." 

This prestigious title reflects the deep integration of tennis into the local culture and its pioneering efforts to promote the sport at the grassroots level since the 1980s. 

With a population of only 650,000 residents, Jingshan boasts more than 340 tennis courts, over 100,000 active players, multiple national and international tennis tournaments, as well as the only tennis school in China that combines compulsory education with professional tennis training.

Zhu Dingzhu, president of the Hubei Tennis School, based in Jingshan, told the Global Times that the school is committed to fostering the next Zheng. 

Having just moved to a newly established campus in early October, the public school now houses over 460 students and 43 coaches. 

Established in 2019, the school offers a blend of standard academic courses alongside professional tennis training with a capacity for over 1,000 students between 6 to 14 years old.

"Our objective is to cultivate reserve tennis athletes, contributing to the talent pool for Hubei's provincial team and China's national team. While 15 percent of students are currently from regions outside of Hubei, we aim to enlarge this number to 30 percent in 2025 and 50 percent by 2030," Zhu noted. 

"Although only a few can eventually progress to higher levels of competitive tennis, we hope to expand the talent pool with the second and third Zheng emerging from here." 

Scheduled from October 17 to November 10, the 5th China (Jingshan) Tennis Festival features a variety of exciting events, including the 4th World Junior Soft Tennis Championships, the inaugural China Village Tennis finals and a national team event. 

These competitions aim to showcase emerging talents and promote tennis at both grassroots and professional levels, further establishing Jingshan as a key hub for tennis development in China.

Grass-roots participation

Looking back over the past two decades, each individual breakthrough by tennis players has expanded the horizons of the sport in China. 

In just 20 years, tennis has grown from a niche sport with limited public awareness and low competitive levels to one of China's most popular and promising disciplines. 

According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), in 2021, there were 87.18 million people participating in tennis globally, with China ranking second with 19.92 million participants, accounting for 22.9 percent of the global tennis-playing population. 

At the grass-roots level, the development of tennis talent is evolving rapidly. A youth tennis tour starring China's two-time Grand Slam doubles champion Zheng Jie has also become a platform for Chinese youth players to grow.

Traditional talent development models focused on elite athletes often cause many promising young players to quit the sport if they don't reach the top, analysts say, as they call for shifting focus from fostering a passion for tennis to providing life-long learning opportunities.

Despite impressive attendance at events, tennis remains a relatively high-cost sport to pick up in China. A typical tennis family's annual expenses can easily reach hundreds of thousands of yuan, the Global Times has learned. 

An increasing number of Chinese families are choosing to support their children's tennis journeys, driven by both economic stability and higher educational and personal development goals for their kids, prominent Beijing-based tennis promoter Qiu Youyi told the Global Times.

"We are seeing more and more young people picking up the racket in China, but the question is, how do we keep them engaged in the sport for the long term and ensure they benefit and grow from participating?" Qiu said. 

"If tennis is seen solely as a path to elite status, it will be difficult to sustain this interest."  

But Chen is optimistic about the popularity of tennis in China.

"Current momentum indicates there will be more title wins from Chinese tennis players, which will be the catalyst for growing the sport's popularity," Chen told the Global Times. 

"As long as popularity grows, there will be more kids participating in the sport, and thus we might be able to see the rise of future heroes."