With the arrival of the top women's tennis event in 2009, WTA Chief Executive Officer Larry Scott has vowed to turn Beijing into the "tennis capital of the world".

"We want to make Beijing a true tennis capital in the world," said Scott, who is visiting the city this week. "The city is our most important focus and a base to promote the sport in different cities and also the whole of Asia.

"The tennis capital means Beijing will be our primary focus in Asia. We are here not only to operate China Open but also to help raise the popularity of the sport in China, and also support all 15 WTA tournaments in Asia. We will also have a number of grassroots events and small tournaments around the country."

Beijing won the rights to host a nine-day elite Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tournament last week, becoming one of four cities hosting elite events on a 20-tour top-level calendar in 2010. The Olympic Green Tennis Center will be the home of the new WTA event.

Other mandatory women's stops will be in Madrid, Miami and Indian Wells, California.

A streamlined WTA calendar of top events will include Asia-Pacific regional stops in Tokyo, Sydney, Doha and Dubai as well as Beijing, which will also host a new regional WTA office starting in 2008 to guide marketing and promotions.

Scott believes the event comes at the right time.

"I think this is the best time to bring the tournament to Beijing," he said. "Women's tennis is in its best time now. The popularity has never been higher, the prize money is on the highest level. With the increasing support from our global and local sponsors, the sport can get even stronger."

The recent success of a number of Chinese players in both singles and doubles, along with the establishment and presence of Tour events in both Beijing and Guangzhou over the past years, has already helped make women's tennis one of the most popular sports in China.

Li Na, No 17 in the WTA Tour Rankings, is the highest-ranked Chinese player ever, and in 2006 at Wimbledon she became the first Chinese player to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai have also made their mark on Tour and rank within the Tour's top 50. Zheng and Yan Zi captured China's first Grand Slam titles with doubles victories at the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon the same year.

Last month, the capital city announced a 500 million yuan ($62.5 million) budget for international events after the Beijing Olympics in 2008 with the WTA event topping the list.

"We all witness the government's strong support for the Beijing Games and the state-of-the-art facilities, it is the government's commitment that gives me great confidence to keep building the popularity of tennis in China."

Off the court, WTA teamed up with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) last year to help raise the status of women. Scott said he hoped the event could spark social change for women in China.

"The fact our top players play here sends a very strong and powerful signal about the progressiveness of some of those places that I think is inspiring social change," Scott said.

"Our sport is a reflection of where society is at around the world in terms of some of these social issues, but it's also a catalyst for further effecting social change."

"Given the success of China's women's players, girls' participation in tennis is much more advanced than many other countries, but I believe there are still some places we can improve."

Combined Event

Scott said the men's and women's professional tennis tours will decide next month whether to merge their new top-level tournaments in China into one event.

Financial hub Shanghai will host an ATP Masters series tournament from the same season.

The tours are discussing the possibility of bringing the events together for a mixed tournament held in alternate years in the two cities.

"We all go to the second phase to decide how to coordinate, we will decide it within the next month," said Scott. "For grand slams and crown jewel events we want to see men and women play together."

Scott said merging the events was just one option being considered, while a Beijing sports bureau official said it would be "difficult".

"There are many difficulties in marketing, organizing and sponsors," said Mu Dawei, deputy chief of Beijing Sports Bureau.

"If we fail to merge with Shanghai, we will apply for an ATP tournament instead."

The upgraded WTA China Open in Beijing will have at least $4 million prize money, will be mandatory for the top 50 players in the world and will be played in the first week of October.

Shanghai's new Masters Series event will be the first and only ATP top-tier event in Asia.

(China Daily via Agencies April 27, 2007)