(Yicai) Oct. 16 -- Official tennis tournaments held in China since the end of last month have set new records for sales and spectator numbers, mainly thanks to the success of Chinese players.

The 2024 China Open, which was held in Beijing from Sept. 24 to Oct. 6, reported a record of over 300,000 on-site visitors, up 50 percent from last year. Ticket revenue also hit a new record high of CNY80 million (USD11.2 million).

The China Open is a hard-court tennis tournament organized by the Chinese Tennis Association. It includes a 500 Association of Tennis Professionals tournament and a 1000 Women's Tennis Association tournament.

Chinese female tennis player Zheng Qinwen, who won the country's first Olympic gold in tennis at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris this year, reached the semifinals of the China Open.

According to official statistics from the tournament, Zheng's opening match attracted 39,000 people, reaching a new record attendance rate of 95 percent. The previous record was set 12 years ago when another Chinese player, Li Na, faced Russia's Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Chinese male tennis player Bu Yunchaokete, who ranked only 124th before the beginning of the tournament, reached the semifinals of the China Open, attracting great attention.

Zheng is China's highest-ranked female tennis player at the seventh spot, followed by Wang Xinyu at the 39th and Yuan Yue at the 46th spot. Meanwhile, China's highest-ranked male tennis player is Zhang Zhizhen at the 46th spot, followed by Shang Juncheng and Bu at the 49th and 73rd spots, respectively.

After the China Open, the CTA organized the ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai and the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, two other hard-court tournaments.

Held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, the Shanghai Masters attracted more than 20,000 daily spectators during the National Day holiday between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7, with the daily souvenir sales exceeding CNY1 million (USD140,570). The organizer estimated that a total of more than 220,000 visitors attended the event. All three figures were new record high.

The Wuhan Open was held from Oct. 5 to Oct. 13, with Zheng taking the second spot after losing the final against Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka. According to official statistics, the overall ticket sales reached a new record of over CNY25 million, up nearly five-fold from the 2019 edition. The number of visitors exceeded 180,000, up more than 80 percent in the period.

Editor: Futura Costaglione