体坛英语资讯：Beijing preparing for ATP 500 Series tour in 2009

The Association for Tennis Professionals (ATP) CEO International Brad Drewett says the ATP Tour is trying to make sure Beijing realizes its full potential as a tennis city.

The tennis boss visited Beijing on Monday to attend a celebration for the upgrade of the China Open into an ATP 500 Series event.

"I am sure Beijing has great potential to become one of the elite tennis cities in the world," said Drewett. "The ATP will put in more effort in the future to make Beijing fully live up to its potential."

Beijing will join another nine host cities in a revamped 500 Series setting. The 500 Series events are one tier below the nine Masters Series tournaments.

Women's Tennis Association (WTA) had named the China Open as its top Crown-Jewelry event starting in 2009. With the upgrade on the ATP side the tournament becomes one of four major combined events in the world together with the Indian Wells, Miami and the Madrid stops.

Drewett said the new tournament has played a significant role in the development and popularity of tennis not only in Shanghai, but in the whole of China.

"It is a natural progression for Beijing to become an ATP 500 tournament," he said. "I was overwhelmed with the progress that the China Open has made over the past four years. It was just an infant on the tour some years ago, but now it is already one of the best tournament in the world."

"Beijing has the infrastructure and expertise as well as huge public support to stage one of the ATP's top events."

The China Open will see an instant improvement after the upgrade, with the ranking points rising from 175 to 500.

Prize money will rise to $20.7 million, an increase of 400 percent since last year. The event will also be moved from September 10 to October 3 so it doesn't run up against the US Open.

Drewett said the changes will benefit fans and the sport in a long run.

"The changes we are undertaking represent the biggest shake-up of the ATP Tour since its inception, but reflect a true appetite for the sport in emerging key markets," he said. "Our players, fans, tournaments and sponsors deserve a world class Tour and that is what we will be giving them in 2009."

The other nine cities granted 500 Series tournaments are: Rotterdam, Dubai, Acapulco, Memphis, Barcelona, Washington DC, Tokyo, Basel and Valencia.

Hamburg is in litigation over its Masters Series status and has been reserved to host an 11th tournament in the 500 Series.