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Mike Chan

He has been stung by the likes of Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka bailing out of his tournaments at the eleventh hour, but the head of Hong Kong tennis has thrown his weight behind the sport’s controversial jam-packed calendar.
Equally, Michael Cheng Ming-git, president of the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association (HKCTA), said the city was getting bang for its buck from hosting ATP and WTA 250 events every year.
After a spate of high-profile withdrawals from last week’s Canadian Open, the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) raised concerns over a relentless schedule and the expansion of top-tier tournaments.
The association announced it had collected and analysed injury data from the past eight years, concluding that “the season is too long, recovery time is shrinking, and injuries are occurring earlier and becoming more severe”.
In each of the past two years, Raducanu and Osaka have pulled out of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open citing fitness problems, while half of the original eight-man field backed out of last October’s inaugural Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in the city.
Nonetheless, Cheng believes the nearly year-round programme of competitions is merely one element of tennis’ evolution.

“I don’t think it’s just about the length of the season; there are many other reasons contributing to the rise in injury cases,” Cheng said. “It’s a much more physical game now. The style has changed, as has the format of competition. That’s evolution.
“Playing conditions, playing surfaces and racquet technology have changed; strength and conditioning have become much more important, and extreme weather conditions also have an impact.
“Those days of ‘Pistol Pete’ [14-time grand slam champion Pete Sampras] launching powerful, accurate serves and approaching the net to score are gone. Even the grass composition changed at Wimbledon over time, producing more rallies. It’s just not a single factor leading to the injuries.”
The men’s season has lasted 46 weeks for the past 11 years, other than in 2014 and 2023 when it went one day longer.
On the women’s tour, the season lasted 43 weeks and one day from 2010 to 2018. An additional week was added in 2019, and the season was further extended to 45 weeks in 2024. The only exception was the 45-week, three-day season in 2021.
The pandemic-wrecked 2020 season was not counted in the calculations.
“Traditionally the first two ATP weeks of the year are 250 events leading into the Australian Open, and some top players like [men’s world No 1] Jannik Sinner don’t play,” Cheng said. “The top, top players are free from week 47 [of the previous year] to the third week of the new season.
“And yes, there are both WTA 250 and 500 events from the start of the year, but the women’s [season-ending] finals were in week 45. It’s unfair to blame injuries and dropouts on just one reason.”
Cheng, who has just completed the first quarter of his second HKCTA presidential term, also outlined why hosting tour and exhibition events was positive for Hong Kong. Tennis is among the four most popular sports globally, alongside football, cricket and basketball.
“Name me a global tour sport that is reported on by global news networks and where match coverage is distributed across more than 100 countries,” he said. “You will see tennis in that bracket, alongside a very small number of other sports.
“Tennis is a credibility sport [for the city]. Hong Kong as ‘Asia’s World City’, and a global financial hub, deserves to have major sporting events. Beijing, Shanghai, London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Singapore all stage tennis tournaments.”
Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo are the only Asian cities that host both ATP and WTA competitions. Hong Kong’s WTA event has won five international awards since 2018.
If the innovative UTS was added to the equation, the exclusive list would contain only two cities worldwide, the other being London.
Cheng, whose current term runs until December 2027, added that Hong Kong, as a tennis brand, has been on a very steady growth path: from having no professional event for more than a decade before 2013 to welcoming three tournaments last year, including the second edition of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis 125.
“Building sporting IP in a city takes time, and there are no short cuts,” he said. “The China Open [in Beijing], which is a WTA 1000 and ATP 500 event today, has been an undertaking of more than 30 years.
“They are constantly investing and building, and they are now constructing another new centre court.
“Multiple countries are upgrading their facilities; the valuation of tennis is rising and so are the corresponding facility standards.
“Hong Kong should aspire to continue to grow and invest in tennis. It is realistic for us to aim for higher-profile events.
“Major tennis events not only enhance Hong Kong’s international sporting profile, but also inspire the next generation of local players.
“We now have a growing pool of talented young players, with many of them performing very well and on an upwards trajectory.”

Cheng also said Hong Kong’s event strategy was one of organic growth and thoughtful execution, as opposed to buying instant success.
“Transformational acquisition or splashing cash is an option, of course, but we don’t believe in quick fixes,” he said. “We have seen plenty of those yielding mixed results.”
Singapore reportedly paid comfortably more than US$16 million a year to host the WTA Finals from 2014 to 2018, while Saudi Arabia is reportedly investing huge sums to launch an ATP 1000 event in 2028.
The cost for Hong Kong to host a WTA or ATP tournament is estimated to be less than US$5 million per event.
“If you look at those sums, what we’re spending is surely value for money,” Cheng said. “Many Asian destinations, notably Saudi Arabia and Singapore, are aspiring to use tennis to promote themselves as event destinations.
“Singapore used just one year to turn its WTA 250 event into a 500; Saudi Arabia has hosted the WTA Finals and ATP Next Gen Finals.
“Hong Kong is quietly building and shaping up to be a novel, boutique tennis destination. We should aspire to be a thought leader in the tennis world, one that is able to stage world-class events, and benchmark ourselves against a financial hub like Japan, which has two 500 events.”


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Sport

Hong Kong

Tennis

Michael Cheng says city must continue to invest in tennis and has no issue with calendar, which some players say is too long, causes injuries


Michael Cheng says city must continue to invest in tennis and has no issue with calendar, which some players say is too long, causes injuries.


WTA (Women's Tennis Association)

Hong Kong Tennis Association (HKTA)

Emma Raducanu

Naomi Osaka

Hong Kong tennis chief says city getting bang for buck from hosting WTA, ATP events

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Michael Cheng says city must continue to invest in tennis and has no issue with calendar, which some players say is too long, causes injuries

Michael Cheng says city must continue to invest in tennis and has no issue with calendar, which some players say is too long, causes injuries