by Greg Sharko
@SharkoTennis
The following are notes and nuggets on the upcoming China Open in Beijing!
* This is the second year back for the tournament after a four-year hiatus and is the only combined ATP and WTA tournament in the four-week Asian swing. The WTA event runs over 12 days from Sept. 25-Oct. 6 and the ATP event is one week from Sept. 26-Oct. 2.
* Last year the tournament drew over 200,000 spectators as Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner won their first title in Beijing.
* There are valuable ranking points at stake with 1,000 and 500 awarded to the WTA and ATP champions, respectively, as it’s the home stretch to the year-end Finals for both tours.
* This is the first year the WTA tournament is a 96-player 1000-level mandatory event featuring all of the top player on the WTA Tour. Swiatek leads No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka by 409 points in the Race to the WTA Finals standings and for the year-end No. 1 ranking.
* The ATP tournament is 500-level event featuring five of the Top 6 players (and 6 of the Top 10). Leading the field is World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, No. 2 Alexander Zverev (after the USO), No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, No. 5 Daniil Medvedev and No. 6 Andrey Rublev. Last year Sinner defeated Medvedev in the final as both players were making their Beijing debut (along with Alcaraz, who reached the semifinals). Sinner, who came into Beijing a year ago ranked No. 7, finished 20-2. He is 55-5 this year with an ATP Tour-best 6 titles.
* With Sinner and Alcaraz accounting for all four Grand Slam titles this season, this marks the first time in China Open history (since 2004) that all four Grand Slam winners are competing in Beijing. It’s also the first time since 1993 that all four Grand Slam tournament champions in a season are 23 years old & under.
* Chinese tennis is on the rise with the success of Qinwen Zheng capturing the Olympic gold medal (8 Chinese women were in the US Open main draw for the 2nd time, 2019) and three Chinese men were in the US Open main draw. Teenager Juncheng Shang reached the 3rd Round and it’s the third straight year a Chinese man has advanced to the US Open 3rd Round.
* Co-tournament director Lars Graff is a former ATP chair umpire and ATP supervisor.
