On October 31, the 2021 China Tennis Tour • Times China • Guangzhou Huangpu Station and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Tennis Open kicked off at the Guangzhou Development Zone International Tennis School, with Wu Yiyu and Zheng Feishuang lifting the men's singles and women's singles championships respectively, the CTA1000 yangcheng tennis event also announced a smooth end.
After the end of Huangpu Station, the Foshan Station of the China Tour will start in November. What is even more exciting for fans in the Pearl River Delta is that the official announcement of the Central Tour has officially announced that this year's year-end finals of the highest level of tennis tour in China will be settled in the Macao Special Administrative Region in December. That is to say, in the next two months, the most watched events and stars in the domestic tennis world will gather in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, bringing multiple tennis feasts to fans in the Greater Bay Area.
In fact, as one of the regions with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality in China, the development of tennis in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has always been at the forefront of the country. From the introduction and promotion of tennis projects from the people many years ago, to the various domestic and foreign professional events and folk events have entered the Greater Bay Area, and many tennis superstars have visited and performed one after another, it can be said that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is almost one of the most popular and active areas for domestic tennis. The geographical relationship between the three places and one cloth and one water has promoted the integration and progress of tennis for many years. With the next National Games jointly organized by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the senior management of the three local network associations also expressed their positions in an exclusive interview with Nandu reporters, hoping to strengthen exchanges and bring the four words of "network gravity" in the Greater Bay Area to a new level.
Wu Yifu successfully defended the Title of China Tennis Tour Champion in Guangzhou Huangpu.
Talk about antiquity
Hong Kong companies bring the earliest "tennis fever" to Guangzhou
On October 29th, taking the opportunity of the Central Tour Guangzhou Huangpu Station, a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Tennis Culture Salon with the theme of "Net Gravity" was held at the Guangzhou Development Zone International Tennis School. Tennis professionals from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau gathered together, including senior managers of local tennis associations, as well as professional coaches and representatives of young athletes who have been active in the frontline of the tournament all year round. Nandu reporter met Mr. He Zeguo, a sports celebrity known as the "Guangzhou Tennis Living Dictionary", at the salon scene, and through the description of the old man, he unveiled to everyone how the tennis love affair between Guangdong and Hong Kong was opened.
"Guangdong Tennis Living Dictionary" He Zeguo recalled the history of the rise of tennis in Guangdong at the salon.
"I came into contact with tennis myself in the 80s (of the last century), and I remember passing by the tennis court in Shamian, and I saw some business people from Hong Kong coming to Guangzhou playing tennis, and I thought this sport seemed to be very interesting, so I learned it with people." He Lao told reporters that when he was young, he was one of the earliest professional table tennis athletes in China, who had signed up for the first National Games, and had been engaged in table tennis teaching work after retiring, but immediately fell in love with the sport after contacting tennis, and tennis also became the most popular sport outside his old table tennis industry. "At that time, there were very few people playing tennis in Guangzhou, and at the earliest, in addition to Hong Kong and Macao businessmen, it was mainly a group of senior intellectuals and doctors who were playing, after all, the equipment and venue costs of playing tennis were relatively high, and the opportunities for ordinary citizens to contact tennis were far from being as common as they are now."
As the old saying goes, one of the main reasons why tennis did not get rapid popularity in the early stages of its introduction to Guangzhou was due to hardware conditions such as venues. Even the sand-faced court with a century-old history was originally a sand-based venue, which did not meet the requirements of modern tennis training, not to mention holding some standard international events. According to Ho Zeguo's recollection, Mr. Fok Ying Tung, a patriotic businessman from Hong Kong, played a promoting role in this process. "I remember that after Mr. Fok Yingdong invested in the White Swan Hotel, he also funded the shamian tennis court to be well organized and changed the sand to a hard ground. Later, he invested in a real grass tennis court in Panyu Hotel, which should also be the first time in the history of Guangzhou that there was a grass tennis court, and I was also fortunate to play ball, which felt very comfortable. Later, taking the opportunity of the Six Games, (last century) in the 90s, some high-end communities in Guangzhou were also equipped with tennis courts, especially after the establishment of the Tianhe Tennis School in the late 90s, Guangzhou finally had a relatively large-scale tennis professional venue, and this sport gradually radiated to Foshan, Jiangmen and other places, and was able to develop rapidly. ”
Speaking of Mr. Fok Yingdong, He Zeguo also had a lot of exchanges with him through tennis. "Mr. Huo himself loves to play tennis. At that time, every other month, sometimes even a week, he would come to Shamian to play, and it was also under his leadership that gradually we had a group of fixed local friends, who played regularly and established the Xiguan Tennis Club. Mr. Huo also invited us to Hong Kong to participate in friendly matches, which can be said to have increased everyone's insight and made more and more people realize what professional tennis is like. He Zeguo himself sent his daughter He Jinghua to study tennis, and now He Jinghua has become a professional coach of the Guangdong Provincial Tennis Team.
"It should be said that Hong Kong's tennis enthusiasts played a very important role in the rise of guangzhou folk tennis in the early years." He Zeguo said. "It is also their drive that makes Guangdong the first region where tennis has been promoted in China, and gradually has the situation that we have to flourish today."
In 2009, Sampras (right) and Agassi (left) went to Macau to play an exhibition match, which became a big event that fans talked about. Xinhua News Agency
Hong Kong and Macao tennis are the first
Before the emergence of professional competitions and professional players in Guangdong and even Chinese tennis, Hong Kong and Macao obviously started earlier, especially Hong Kong tennis, which once represented the highest level of Chinese tennis. Nandu reporter also interviewed Mo Junyi, president of the Hong Kong Tennis Federation, at this salon, and he also took the reporter to review many important moments in the history of Hong Kong tennis development.
"In fact, tennis has begun to develop in Hong Kong as early as 1900, and the Hong Kong Tennis Federation was founded in 1909, because the tennis courts in Hong Kong at that time were mainly grassy, so it was called the Hong Kong Lawn Tennis Association." Mo Junyi said. "It is also because of the association's systematic competition and training system that tennis has developed rapidly in Hong Kong, and by the 1950s, there were already players from Hong Kong participating in international competitions." Hong Kong players have also achieved good results in international competitions, with women's Xu Wanyuan winning the silver medal in women's doubles at the 1962 Asian Games, and another women's star, Xi Limin, who won the women's doubles title in the Junior Division of the Wimbledon Tennis Open in 1983, becoming the first Hong Kong tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament.
At the same time, more and more international professional events have been held in Hong Kong and Macao, such as the predecessor of the WTA Women's Tour and the predecessor of the ATP Men's Tour, which have been held in Hong Kong for many years. Big-name international stars have also appeared in Hong Kong and Macao competitions, including Sampras, Agassi, Zhang Depei, Federer, Christers, Serena Williams and Other Chinese players who are loved by fans in the three places, such as Li Na, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi, who have participated in Hong Kong and Macao, creating momentum for local tennis and driving the development of sports tourism.
Wu Yuling, president of the Macau Tennis Federation, revealed that Sampras and Agassi, who had retired that year, had played an exhibition match in Macao. "That game was really hard to come by, and almost all my friends around me asked if I could buy tickets, but I didn't have any more. My son also went to be a 'caddy' for the two kings! Wu Yuling laughed. This competition also gave us a good enlightenment, that is, how sports can help macao tourism development, at that time gave a good direction, that is, to develop Macao's industry by sports and drive tourism. ”
Many international tennis superstars like to play in Hong Kong. Pictured here is Serena Williams waving to fans after the quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Open in 2015. Xinhua News Agency
Let's talk about it
The convergence of the Greater Bay Area brings star-studded light
If in the past, Guangdong fans have also envied Hong Kong and Macao fans who have the eyes to see so many high-level games and high-level superstars at their doorstep, then in recent years, with the continuous popularization of tennis in Guangdong, various tennis events have also mushroomed.
At present, there are statistics of international high-level professional tennis tournaments that continue to be held in the Greater Bay Area, including the WTA Shenzhen Year-end Finals, the WTA Zhuhai Super Elite Tournament, the WTA Guangzhou Open, the ATP Shenzhen Open, the ATP Zhuhai Open, plus the WTA Hong Kong Open that has been resumed in Hong Kong since 2014, which means that the world's top brand events will have 6 settled in the Greater Bay Area every year, which is the most intensive area for domestic professional tennis high-level events. In recent years, including Sharapova, Murray, Zverev Jr., Halep and many other popular stars have also frequently come to the Pearl River Delta region to participate, coupled with the conditions brought by the development of transportation and convenient information in the Greater Bay Area, every year in the Chinese tennis season, going to the Greater Bay Area to watch and travel has become a fixed program for some fans.
"I have interviewed many tennis matches at home and abroad, and in my opinion, the tennis atmosphere in the Greater Bay Area is one of the best in China." Li Jianyi, a famous tennis photographer who has run all four Grand Slams in one year, told reporters. "Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen have high-level professional events, plus Hong Kong's WTA competitions, Macao will often hold high-end exhibition matches, in my opinion, it is completely possible to recommend the three places together to fans around the world, I will tell them that the Greater Bay Area tennis is a pearl of world tennis, and tennis should also become an international business card of the Sports in the Greater Bay Area."
Shenzhen hosted the WTA Year-end Finals for the first time in 2019. The picture shows the Zhang Shuai/Stosur combination in a doubles match. Xinhua News Agency
In fact, even in the past two years, due to objective reasons, many international competitions have not been able to land, the Greater Bay Area still attracts a variety of domestic tennis brand events to compete to seize the market, whether it is the Central Tour (CTA) initiated by the Tennis Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sports, or the popular "Zheng Jie Cup" and "Sui Ming Cup" among the youth tennis group, all of which take the Greater Bay Area as a key promotion area. This has also brought about the gathering of various types of tennis talents, and the level of competition of the local young generation has been continuously improved. In the National Games group competition that ended more than a month ago, the Guangdong tennis team won 3 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze good results, while the Hong Kong SAR tennis team and the Macao SAR tennis team have also won, it is worth mentioning that behind these achievements is the background of the integration and mutual assistance of the three places.
"Riding on the benefits of the motherland, we Hong Kong players and mainland players have had many opportunities to exchange and learn over the years." Hong Kong Tennis Federation President Mok Junyi said. "Including this National Games. Because of the epidemic, our athletes cannot participate in international competitions, but thanks to the help of Guangdong, we can come to Guangzhou early to train in preparation for the National Games. Although the medal is one step away from the end, it is a pity, we are still very grateful to the Guangdong Internet Association for our help, and hope that there will be more opportunities to cooperate with the Guangdong Internet Association in the future. ”
Wu Yuling, president of the Macau Tennis Federation, also revealed that at present, the elite players of Macao tennis have been fixed in Zhuhai Hengqin Tennis Center for a long time for training. "There is a Greater Bay Area tennis development base in Hengqin, and I hope that through this cooperation, for example, our tournaments are placed there, and players from the Greater Bay Area are welcome to play there, so that everyone does not have to go out, and our players have more opportunities to play."
Nandu reporters hosted the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Tennis Salon, where renowned football commentator He Hui (second from left), Macau Tennis Federation President Wu Yuling (middle), Guangdong tennis celebrity Zeng Jingxiong (second from right) and business representatives (first from right) gathered together to look forward to the future of tennis in the Greater Bay Area.
Building the future together
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao National Games create excellent opportunities
Referring to the tennis tournament held in the Greater Bay Area this year, the just-concluded CTA1000 Central Tour Guangzhou Huangpu Station is naturally the highest level of competition at present, and the famous players Wu Yiyu and Zheng Feishuang also won the men's and women's singles laurels at this station, setting off a tennis boom in Yangcheng. However, this is not the final tennis climax of the Greater Bay Area this year, in fact, just yesterday, the Central Tour officially announced that the 2021 Mid-Tour year-end finals will be held in the Macao SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, coupled with the Foshan station competition that will start this month, the tennis boom in the Greater Bay Area will obviously continue for some time.
"I think this is a particularly good gift from the General Administration to Macao." Speaking of the Central Tour Finals to be held in Macau, The President of the Macau Tennis Federation, Wu Yuling, was very excited, and she also pointed out that perhaps in the future, tennis professionals from the three places in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can work together to create a tennis event brand that belongs to the Greater Bay Area like the Central Tour. "Our hardware is already very good in the country, such as Shenzhen has a venue that can host the WTA year-end finals, Zhuhai has Hengqin International Tennis Center, and Guangzhou has Olympic Sports. We have such good hardware in the Greater Bay Area, excellent hardware suppliers in the sports industry like the right time, and a good training system, and so many good coaches, the possibility of running a game like the Central Tour in the Greater Bay Area is very high. I also think it will help the players in the Greater Bay Area a lot. ”
Mok Junyi, president of the Hong Kong Tennis Federation, also hopes that the guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao tennis communities can strengthen cooperation, so as to promote the progress of youth tennis in the entire Greater Bay Area. "We now have 14 international events and more than 30 local events every year, and the players are also eager to communicate with high-level players in the mainland and compete with each other to better improve their competitive level."
Four years later, the National Games jointly hosted by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will obviously further create opportunities for the integration of tennis in the three places. "The venue for the next National Games tennis tournament has not yet been decided, but my expectations for the level of competition of the athletes of the next National Games are very high." Wu Yuling said. "I also hope that the hosting of the National Games will push the tennis cooperation in the Greater Bay Area to another level, including the development of the entire sports industry, and can take off with this."
Special feature writing: Nandu reporter Wang Yayun