Per editor: Dong Xingsheng
The 15,000-seat Pala Alpino Stadium in Turin, Italy, celebrated the final tennis event of the 2021 season this week. The world's top eight men's tennis players are on the offensive towards championship points and trophies, and the total prize money of $7.25 million is waiting to be divided.
2021 Turin ATP Year-End Finals Poster Image Source: ATP Tour Official Weibo
The Turin ATP Year-End Finals, which kicked off this week, are a lot of highlights. Current men's singles world number one Novak Djokovic will strive to win the title for the sixth time, equaling the record held by Roger Federer and adding another honor to his perfect 2021 season. Secondly, the post-00s players will stand on the year-end finals for the first time, and the three generations of players in the 80s, 90s and 00s will also compete in the same field for the first time.
The ATP Year-End Finals moved to Turin, Italy, this year for a period of five years. Prior to this, the men's tennis heavyweight event was held for 12 years at the O2 Stadium in London, England, and the iconic venue that can accommodate 20,000 people has attracted more than 2.8 million spectators, reached more than 850 million viewers worldwide, and issued a total prize of 78.8 million US dollars (about 503 million yuan).
According to the level of the competition, the ATP year-end finals rank after the four Grand Slams, but when it comes to the star density of the participating lineups, the year-end finals are undoubtedly proud of the tennis world.
Professional tennis is an almost year-round sport, with weeks as the unit and the city as the fulcrum, and professional tennis players need to compete globally. From Melbourne to Paris, from Wimbledon to New York, from Shanghai to Rome, each tournament has corresponding points and prize money, and the world ranking corresponding to the accumulation of points is an important condition for players to participate in different levels of competition, and it is also the only indicator of whether they can enter the year-end finals.
Born in 1970, the tournament has rotated 15 cities in its 51-year history. Shanghai also held this event in 2002, 2005-2008. Djokovic has stated publicly on several occasions: "Personally, I would like to recommend a more active global rotation of the ATP year-end finals as an important way to accelerate the expansion of the tournament and tennis's global reach." ”
As a global sport, the development of professional tennis events has brought about changes, not only the more internationalization of the host city and the growth of the audience base, but also the rising prize money.
In the year-end finals, for example, stan Smith won the inaugural title in 1970 with a prize of $15,000. At the Turin arena, players will receive $173,000 in prize money even if they lose all three group games. For each win, you get an additional $173,000. Winning the semi-finals and finals will also get more, and winning all five games will earn a total of 2.316 million US dollars (about 14.79 million yuan). Even a bench player who can't play on a cold bench will get $93,000.
2021 Turin ATP Year-End Finals Prize Distribution Image Source: ATP official website
However, the global hosting of tournaments has also been seriously frustrated by the impact of the new crown epidemic, and the ticket revenue of many events has dropped sharply, which has led to the general reduction of tournament prize money in tennis tournaments in the past two years. Last year's year-end finals in London cancelled spectator admission, directly resulting in a nearly 40% reduction in the total prize money from $9 million in 2019.
Throughout the sports world, highly professional projects are closely bound to the spotlight. At Hollywood banquets, NBA stars and tennis players are regulars. At a time when social media influence is rising, sports events also have to hold on to this traffic outlet.
In this year's year-end finals, the organizer ATP (Professional Tennis Federation) made a linkage with foreign social red Kabi Lem. The Italian Kirby has hundreds of millions of fans on Tik Tok (overseas version of Douyin), and is the second celebrity in the world to sit on this number of fans. As a tennis fan, Kirby contacted ATP in the hope of having an interaction, which ATP gladly accepted.
After entering the new millennium, the men's tennis world ushered in the greatest golden age in history so far. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have broken through and taken their place, creating a "Big Three" era that is talked about by the media and fans, with the three winning 20 Grand Slam singles titles each. Three of the most successful men's tennis players in history and many of the best golfers have pushed the sport to a new level of competition and put professional tennis on the fast track of development.
According to the 2021 World Tennis Survey Report, the total tennis population of the world exceeds 87 million, and the number of tennis clubs has doubled from 2018 to more than 115,500. Among them, the total population of Chinese tennis is about 20 million people, ranking second in the world, but in terms of infrastructure, China's current tennis courts account for only 8.6% of the world, and the gap between the United States and 37% is obvious.
Overview of global tennis development Image source: 2021 World Tennis Survey Report
Proportion of tennis courts in China Image source: 2021 World Tennis Survey Report
China's second-largest tennis population base is largely due to the outstanding performance of China's golden generation of female tennis players in international competitions. For example, after Li Na won the French Open in 2011, the number of tennis tournaments in China has further increased, including high-level events such as the Wuhan Open. In addition, the number of tennis courts and clubs has increased significantly, and tennis has begun to become a sports option for more people.
But competitive sports have changed, with the 40-year-old Federer undergoing knee surgery again after wimbledon this year, away from the field, and the 35-year-old Nadal also withdrew from most of the season with a foot injury. Djokovic, 34, is still at the top of the competition, but for ATP, the answer to where the next "golden age" will be found needs to be found quickly. Because the managers of the ATP have seen how obvious the WTA (International Women's Tennis Association) is in the "chaotic" era when star players such as Li Na and Sharapova have retired one after another, and the level of competition is difficult to return to the peak, how obvious is the shaking of the audience base.
Whether it's ATP or WTA, tennis is undergoing tangible new changes. From the adjustment of the rules of the game to the transformation of the marketing method, this century-old sport is actively adapting to the tastes and needs of a new group of spectators, with a view to further expanding the global influence and market size of tennis. After all, in China, the 20 million tennis base accounts for only 1.4% of the total population. The Asian market with great potential is a "new continent" that both ATP and WTA are targeting.
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