The Shanghai Rolex Masters is an annual, outdoor hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Shanghai, China is an annual, outdoor hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Shanghai, China. The event is a part of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and is held annually in October at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Shanghai, China. The inaugural tournament took place between 11th October and 18th October 2009. In its inaugural year, the tournament was awarded as ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year, by the players themselves. Rolex has decided that it will continue its partnership with the Shanghai Masters as the Title sponsor of the event this year.
Shanghai has hosted the year ending tournament- Tennis Masters Cup five times, since 2002. The successful organization of Tennis Masters Cup reflected thoughtful services and splendid matches; and finally in April 2007, ATP and Shanghai sealed the deal that gave Shanghai, the rights to host the only Masters 1000 event outside Europe and North America. This meant that more than 100 professional tennis players displayed their skills in a 9-day thrilling event.
This is the only Masters 1000 event that takes place in Asia, thus the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 can be termed as a flagship event on the new Asia swing, as mentioned by the ATP in 2009, including other Asian tournaments like Bangkok, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai.
Tournament facts –
Venue - Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Shanghai, China
Surface – Hard, DecoTurf
Men’s Singles – 56 singles
Men’s Doubles – 24 pairs
Courts – There are in all 25 tennis courts in the Qi Zhong tennis complex. The main court can hold around 15,000 spectators whereas a new Grand Stand Court 2 with a capacity of 5,000 people has also been built.
Past Winner – Nikolay Davydenko, this was the inaugural tournament in which Rafael Nadal was the runner-up
Tournament – 10th to 17th October 2010.