Australian Open China Challenge launches in Beijing

BEIJING, July 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese business leaders had a taste of the Australian Open on Saturday with the launch of the China Challenge in Beijing. 

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The Australian Open China Challenge will see more than 500 business administrators from a variety of industries compete in a series of tennis tournaments over the next five months.

From July to November, Tennis Australia and Australian Open Associate Partner Luzhou Laojiao will host 10 tournaments in 10 cities across China - Beijing, Xian, Rizhao, Suzhou, Changsha, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chengdu.

The winning pair from each city will travel to Melbourne to play the final at 1573 Arena during Australian Open 2020.

Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said the China Challenge was a new way for the tournament to engage with different demographics of the Chinese community. 

"The Australian Open China Challenge is just another example of our ongoing commitment to building the presence of not just the Australian Open, but the sport of tennis, in China and the Asia-Pacific region," Tiley said.

"This initiative is a great opportunity for Chinese tennis fans in the business community to play tennis in a competitive environment and build a connection with us. We hope these players visit Melbourne and attend the tournament one day."

China's top ranked player and current world No.15 Qiang Wang was in Beijing to launch the first tournament.

"It is fantastic to see the Australian Open engage with the corporate world here in China," Wang said.

"There are so many tennis fans in this country and to give them an opportunity to experience a part of the Australian Open is very special. I've been fortunate enough to compete at the Australian Open five times and I'm happy to be able to share my experiences of playing in Melbourne with the competitors."

In each city, participants will play a round robin doubles tournament. The pool matches will see one Fast4 Tennis set played and the final will be best of three Fast4 Tennis sets. 

Fast4 Tennis is a modified version of the game launched globally in Sydney in 2015 by Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt. The format is based on the fundamentals of tennis and introduces four innovative rules to ensure matches are fast, competitive, exciting and completed in a short period of time.

• lets are played 
• no ad scoring 
• first to four games wins the set
• Fast4 Tennis tiebreaker at three games all (first to 5 points with a deciding point played at four points all).

The Australian Open China Challenge joins a calendar of events Tennis Australia already hosts in China including the Australian Open's Asia Pacific Wildcard Play-off in Zhuhai and The Belt and Road Chengdu-Australian Open University Tennis Championships in Chengdu.