BEIJING, Oct 12 — The four huge yellow cranes that tower over the Olympic tennis centre are witness to the ambitious plans for the China Open, which was relaunched last week with neither a bang nor a whimper but something in between.
The new 13,000-seater show court with retractable roof currently under construction would have been useful yesterday when rain delayed play in the men’s final for 90 minutes but when it is ready, it will improve an already impressive venue.
“Certainly the facilities here are incredible and I know when I first came into the building I just said to myself: ‘Wow, this is a world class tennis stadium,’” WTA chief executive Stacey Allaster told a news conference at the event.
“The new stadium being built shows the commitment the Beijing government has for the China Open, which is fantastic for women’s tennis, fantastic for fans around the world.”
The new court, expected to go into operation next year, is being paid for by local government, which has ambitions of creating an international sporting centre with a prestigious tennis event, perhaps even a fifth grand slam.
Tournament organisers are delighted with the new stadium court, as the existing facilities, which were purpose built for the 2008 Olympics and hosted the China Open for the first time this year, were deemed inadequate.
“The existing facilities cannot meet the needs of a commercial event,” said senior organiser Zhang Yabin.
“The new conjunction of courts could rival the best tennis stadiums in the world and provide best matches and services.”
Although the show courts were rarely full last week, organisers said 250,000 people had come through the gates over the nine days of the tournament.
Ticket sales and sponsorship are the main revenue streams for tennis events and as the China Open works to build up the numbers paying to get in, they had to rely more on commercial partnerships than they would have liked.
“Sponsorship covered an unreasonably high proportion of 70 per cent of our revenue, compared to 50-60 per cent in a mature event,” said China Open Commissioner Zhang Junhui.
Organisers were also hoping the rash of withdrawals that hit the event when it was straight after the US Open would disappear with its rebirth as a US$6.6 million (RM22.44 million) mixed tournament and one of the WTA’s four new “crown jewel” events.
The top five women in the world, however, were all gone before the semi-finals and the absence of the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, 2008 champion Jelena Jankovic and Olympic champion Elena Dementieva put a dampener on the second weekend.
“I think the depth of women’s tennis is being demonstrated here,” Allaster said before French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Agniezska Radwanska in the final.
“What is happening in women’s tennis is that in any given day someone in top 50, top 40 can beat a top 10 player. That overall is about growth and depth. So that is good.
“I also think we have to be respectful. Svetlana Kuznetsova is a grand slam champion this year and has been one of the most consistent performers all year.”
There remains the danger though, that despite the WTA’s new schedule, Asian events will always suffer from being at the end of the season when the players are exhausted.
Allaster said it would probably take a couple of years before the full effects of the new schedule, which reduces the number of mandatory tournaments from 13 to 10, were felt.
“I do believe it is a recalibration for the athletes as they get use to this new schedule and the importance of China Open in this last part of the season,” she said.
“I think it will be interesting to see how they adapt and maybe make tweaks to the 2010 calendar based on their performances this year,” she added.
The men’s tournament, which Beijing hopes will eventually be of a similar stature to the women’s event, lost top seed Rafa Nadal in the semi-finals and was won by soon-to-be world number three Novak Djokovic. — Reuters
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