FOR 50 years, the Nitto ATP Finals has been a landmark event on the ATP Tour’s calendar. Tennis’ greatest champions have competed in the tournament, which has rotated through 14 different cities. In 2002 in Shanghai, the tournament became the most-viewed international sporting event ever staged in China at that time.
The city began hosting an event in 1996 — that tournament later became known as the Heineken Open — which intrigued the local government. “This is amazing. We want more of this kind of thing,” Charles Humphrey Smith, the Managing Director/International of Juss Event, remembers an official telling him at the time.
Juss Events, China’s largest sports and events management company, was then allowed by the government to bid for what was then called the Tennis Masters Cup. The state-owned organisation was successful and in 2002, the tournament was held in Shanghai for the first time.
“It’s very seldom
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