Twenty years of accumulation have made Chinese tennis a breakthrough

Fans seeking Zheng Qinwen's autograph after the women's singles medal ceremony at the 2024 Wuhan Open in Wuhan, Hubei Province, October 13. Courtesy of Visual China

On the evening of October 13, in the women's singles final of the 2024 Wuhan Tennis Open, Chinese player Zheng Qinwen fought hard with his old opponent Sabalenka in 3 sets. Although he failed to defeat his opponent in the end, Zheng Qinwen's fighting spirit and hard work still won warm applause from the audience of 15,000. She said affectionately after the game, "Wuhan is where dreams begin." Indeed, when he was a teenager, Zheng Qinwen started his tennis career from Wuhan and established the direction of his life. Today, she has achieved her tennis dreams of glittering enough, including becoming China's first Olympic singles tennis champion in Paris this summer. But Zheng's tennis dreams go far beyond that, and countless Chinese fans believe it will only be a matter of time before Zheng becomes a Grand Slam champion.

As one of the hottest star athletes in Chinese sports today, Zheng Qinwen has led tennis to break through the circle in China once again and become a popular sport that the whole people pay attention to. It is worth noting that whether it is compared with the surprise brought to the Chinese people by Li Ting/Sun Tiantian winning the women's doubles gold medal in the Athens Olympics 20 years ago, or the sensation caused by Li Na winning the two Grand Slam women's singles championships in China from 2011 to 2014, this time, the popularity of Chinese tennis really has the possibility of changing from quantitative to qualitative.

The image of Chinese athletes as patriotic, hardworking, self-confident and sunny has attracted much attention

On September 8, after the final tennis Grand Slam tournament of the year, the 2024 United States Open, the international tennis world officially entered the Chinese season. Influenced by China's Zheng Qinwen winning the women's singles tennis title at the Paris Olympics and Zhang Zhizhen/Wang Xinyu winning the mixed doubles runners-up, tennis has become more popular in China. This year's Chinese season has also received unprecedented attention from the Chinese people. The three highest-level tournaments of the tennis season in China – the China Open, the Wuhan Open and the Shanghai Masters – were all packed with spectators.

According to the data disclosed by the Organizing Committee of the China Open Tennis Championships, the total box office revenue of this year's China Open exceeded 80 million yuan, and before the start of the main event, the ticket sales of the China Open have exceeded the total amount of the entire season last year, only two days before the start of the tournament, the ticket sales revenue was twice that of the same period last year. The number of spectators is expected to be about 300,000 during the whole tournament, and the men's singles final on October 2 with Zheng Qinwen's appearance brought the number of spectators to 29,000 at the China Open that day, and more than 13,000 people poured into the diamond court, with an attendance rate of 100%.

The Shanghai Tennis Masters attracted more than 220,000 people to the tournament, and the number of attendees set a record in the history of the tournament.

The Wuhan Open, as a tournament held in Zheng Qinwen's hometown, is also hard to find, and the attendance rate of the center court is almost 100%.

While several major tennis tournaments are hot at the box office, Chinese players have also achieved great results in the Chinese season.

At the ATP 250 Chengdu Open, which ended on September 24, 19-year-old Chinese teenager Shang Juncheng won the ATP Tour title for the first time. At the ATP 250 Hangzhou Open held at the same time, two Chinese players, Zhang Zhizhen and Buyun Chaokert, met in the men's singles semifinals, which was also the first time in the history of world men's professional tennis that two Chinese players met in the men's singles semifinals of the tour.

Later, at the China Open, Buyun Chaoket broke into the men's singles semifinals, creating the best record of a Chinese men's tennis player in the China Open. Zheng Qinwen broke into the semifinals of the women's singles, which is her best record at the China Open.

When the Wuhan Open was held, Zheng Qinwen and Wang Xinyu met in the women's singles semifinals, which was another historic moment for Chinese tennis. Although Zheng Qinwen did not defeat his old opponent Sabalenka in the women's singles final, he got a set point against Sabalenka for the first time, which also made people see the possibility of Zheng Qinwen overcoming the "mountain" of Sabalenka.

Since the beginning of this year, Zheng Qinwen has won the women's singles runner-up at the Australian Open and the women's singles championship at the Paris Olympics; Zhang Zhizhen/Wang Xinyu won the silver medal in mixed doubles tennis at the Paris Olympics; Zhang Zhizhen became the first men's singles seed in Chinese mainland to compete in a Grand Slam tournament...... Coupled with the excellent performance of Chinese players in the "China Season", tennis has become one of the brightest sports in China.

However, Chinese tennis has attracted the attention of the majority of Chinese people and has achieved the influence of breaking the circle, and the excellent results of athletes are only one of them. Bai Xilin, director of the Tennis Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily · China Youth Network that the image of Chinese athletes represented by Zheng Qinwen as patriotic, hardworking, self-confident and sunny is another important reason why they are concerned and loved by the Chinese people.

At the Paris Olympics, it was not only Zheng Qinwen's hard work on the field that touched people, but also her true feelings: "The national flag held by the fans is really beautiful" and "This is probably the most difficult match I have ever played in my career." I'm tired of it in the end, it's all about my spirit, I want to win more games for China (team)" "Although I don't know what will happen in the final, I can guarantee that I will fight until the last breath" "Even if I am asked to play for my country for another 3 hours now, I am still willing to do it again"......

Zheng Qinwen's full of patriotism, sense of responsibility, and sense of mission is the best endorsement she has made for contemporary Chinese youth.

As an individual sport, professional tennis players usually value personal rewards such as bonuses and points. However, in Chinese athletes, their patriotic feelings and the spirit of winning glory for the country are vividly embodied.

Bai Xilin said that this is related to the growth environment and education of Chinese athletes. Bai Xilin remembered that Zheng Qinwen once told him such a sentence. It was before the start of the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, Bai Xilin spoke to the Chinese tennis players who were about to participate in the Asian Games, and after speaking, Zheng Qinwen said to Bai Xilin: "I think you said that 'sports is war in peacetime' very well, and I will remember this sentence." ”

Bai Xilin believes that Zheng Qinwen's statement means that she has a deep understanding that a Chinese athlete standing on the field represents not only herself, but also a country. Therefore, when Zheng Qinwen won the women's singles championship at the Hangzhou Asian Games, she felt what the honor of the country was. At the Paris Olympics, the reason why she had such a strong mental strength to overcome many difficulties and finally won the championship was precisely because she had the motherland in her heart.

Bai Xilin said that the improvement of China's national strength is the primary reason why China's tennis can have such a development situation today. The improvement of national strength has given Chinese athletes better protection, and also given them stronger self-confidence, national pride and responsibility. It is also because of the improvement of China's national strength that more Chinese families have the ability to support their children to play tennis, so that more young people can embark on the road of tennis.

Exploration of the integration of sports and education behind the blowout of Chinese tennis talents

"It's true that more and more young people in China are starting to play tennis, but how to keep them in tennis and always be able to benefit and grow from participating in tennis is a question that needs to be considered." Wang Jun, a well-known tennis promoter in China, told the reporter of China Youth Daily · China Youth Network that although the traditional sports reserve talent training model selects top athletes, it also makes a large number of young athletes become escorts, and in the end they can often only choose to leave this sport. Wang Jun founded the Tennis 123 Grading Tournament in 2004, and last year it has been able to hold more than 4,000 tournaments in China in one year, including more than 2,000 junior tournaments, which has become an important cornerstone of China's tennis development. The purpose of this tournament is to allow every tennis enthusiast and junior tennis player to find opponents and tournaments that suit their level, so that everyone can continue to participate in tennis. Some people can go to a higher stage from here, such as Shang Juncheng, Zheng Saisai and other outstanding professional tennis players in China, but more people can get the education of loving what they love and sticking to their dreams, which is especially important for young people.

Wang Jun said that more and more Chinese families support their children's participation in tennis, these families have strong economic strength, and at the same time, they also have higher requirements for children's education and higher pursuit of children's growth. If a sport brings only a narrow path to becoming a top athlete, it will be difficult to consistently attract more families and children to participate. Only when every child engaged in this sport can gain and grow in the sport, can more children become long-term participants and enthusiasts of the sport, so that the sport can gain a larger basic plate.

While outstanding athletes such as Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xinyu, Zhang Zhizhen, and Shang Juncheng are emerging in Chinese tennis, we should see the changes that are taking place in the field of grassroots training in tennis. Wang Nanzhu, director of the "Zheng Jie Cup" Youth Tennis Tour, told China Youth Daily · China Youth Network reporter that in the past 20 years, the cultivation of young talents in Chinese tennis has gradually changed from professional teams to family training.

Looking back at the rapid development of Chinese tennis in the past 20 years, in fact, the breakthrough results of each major competition are the promotion of China's tennis to gain greater development space. Wang Nanzhu said that from the 2004 Athens Olympics Li Ting/Sun Tiantian won the tennis women's doubles gold medal, to Zheng Jie/Yan Zi won the first Grand Slam women's doubles championship, then to Li Na's Grand Slam women's singles championship, and then to Zheng Qinwen's Paris Olympics women's singles championship this year. Every breakthrough in Chinese tennis has made more Chinese attention to tennis and driven more social resources to invest in the field of tennis.

In the past 20 years, tennis has grown from an underdeveloped sport with low popularity and low level of competition in China to a popular sport and a sport with great potential.

According to statistics from the International Tennis Federation (ITF), there were 87.18 million people participating in tennis in the world in 2021, and China became the second country in the world in terms of tennis participation with 19.92 million people, second only to United States, accounting for 22.9% of the world's total tennis population. At the same time, the number of tennis courts in China is also the second in the world, reaching 49,767.

However, the current consumption threshold for tennis in China is still high. A tennis family spends hundreds of thousands of yuan a year on their children.

The Chinese Tennis Association has taken note of the problem. Bai Xilin introduced that the Chinese Tennis Association is promoting the "small tennis" project, by lowering the threshold for participation and consumption in tennis, so that more children can participate in tennis conveniently.

It is often said that small ball sports such as table tennis and badminton are good at Chinese. China is also a powerhouse that has reached the world's leading level in terms of popularity and competition in table tennis and badminton. Then tennis also belongs to the small ball project of confrontation across the net, and there is every reason to become another small ball project with advantages in China.

Moreover, tennis also has the status of an international mainstream sport that individual advantageous sports do not have, and the achievements and image of Chinese tennis players can become a Chinese business card with more international influence. This makes Bai Xilin believe that although tennis is a small ball, the contribution to Chinese sports cannot be small.

Beijing, October 14 --

China Youth Daily · China Youth Network reporter Cixin Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily