(Yicai) Aug. 8 -- Wilson Sporting Goods' sales of the racket used by Chinese player Zheng Qinwen, who won the country's first tennis gold in the women's singles event at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, skyrocketed on its flagship store on e-commerce platform Tmall.

Wilson's store received inquiries from more than 40,000 customers about the Pro Staff 97 V14 racket within 48 hours after Zheng's triumph, with orders skyrocketing more than 20 times to 3,000 from a year earlier, according to data from Tmall. The racket became the best-selling tennis product on the platform.

Established in 1913, US sports equipment maker Wilson, along with Canada's Arcteryx and France's Salomon, is owned by Amer Sports, which was bought by an investor consortium led by Chinese sportswear behemoth Anta Sports in March 2019 to embark on globalization.

Amer Sports advanced its presence in China after the acquisition by dividing its brands into technology-embedded clothing, outdoor equipment, and tennis rackets, with Arcteryx, Salomon, and Wilson at their core, respectively.

Compared with Arcteryx and Salomon, Wilson is still in the early stages of its development in China, opening its first store in Wuhan in 2021. The Chicago-based company accelerated its business expansion in the country by opening shops in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and other cities this year.

More and more Chinese people have started playing tennis, likely leading to Wilson's fast expansion. Nearly 20 million people in China practiced the sport in 2021, equal to about 23 percent of the world's total and the second most after the US, according to a report by the International Tennis Federation. The Asian country had 49,767 tennis courts, also ranking second.

Wilson faces competition in China from other tennis brands, including Babolat, Head Sport, and Kawasaki Sport, with many sports and luxury brands starting their business in the country long ago.

Editor: Martin Kadiev