Australian Open expects huge fan base from China: tennis official

Australian Open, the only Grand Slam tournament hosted in the Asia-Pacific region, hopes to capitalize on China's tennis fever and attract more fans to Melbourne for the tournament next year, said a tennis official.

During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Cedric Cornelis, Chief Commercial Officer of Tennis Australia, highlighted the wave of tennis enthusiasm sweeping China in this Olympic sports year.

"There is a really good momentum for China in tennis, and I think that momentum will inspire young kids to play tennis more, to watch tennis more, to play tennis more. And with the size of China, that will only generate more and more champions. So, we see many Chinese champions now, but with the popularity of the sport growing, undeniably, we will see Chinese Grand Slam winners very, very soon. Chinese players are upcoming. They're growing in numbers. China has now eight players in the top hundred of men and women, which is very exciting," he said.

Cornelis highlighted the Australian Open's efforts to balance innovation, localization and tradition, which help distinguish the tournament.

"Tennis is at the core, and our number one priority is to always continue to improve everything we offer to the players. The environment, the services, the facilities...to make sure that we have the absolute very best tennis in the world. And we constantly try to bring the best practice to tennis, we constantly try to bring the best practice of technology, digital, and AI to our event. For example, all of the highlights of every single match that go on the website, they are powered by AI. We were the first Grand Slam to introduce electronic line calling instead of line judges. So, we're constantly trying to innovate like that," said Cornelis.

Cornelis also pointed out that Chinese New Year often coincides with Australian Open, inviting Chinese fans to visit Melbourne for the 2025 event.

"We are the only Grand Slam in the Asia-Pacific time zone, and that enables us to really unlock the power of the audience in Asia and particularly in China. Chinese New Year is very often during the Australian Open, so we always celebrate Chinese New Year during the Australian Open. It's a fantastic opportunity for Chinese fans to come to the Australian Open and enjoy our Chinese New Year celebrations to continue to make tennis successful that you mentioned at the beginning. We want to continue to grow that sport and particularly extend our presence in Asia," he said.

Australian Open expects huge fan base from China: tennis official

China's civil aviation sector reported record-high air traffic in the third quarter of this year (Q3), data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) showed Friday.

In Q3, the total transport turnover, passenger trips, as well as cargo and mail transport volume in the country's civil aviation sector rose 19.8 percent, 12.3 percent and 19.4 percent year on year, respectively.

Meanwhile, passenger trips stoo 200 million during the same period. Of the total, domestic routes registered 180 million passenger trips, up 8.3 percent year on year, while international routes recorded more than 18.2 million trips, surging 78 percent year on year, the data showed.

Since July, international passenger trips on Chinese airlines have recovered to over 90 percent of the same period in 2019 for three consecutive months.

According to the CAAC, the civil aviation market's freight volume exceeded 2.3 million tonnes during the period, with domestic and international freight transport increasing by 12.9 percent and 30.1 percent year on year, respectively.

"Civil aviation transport has shown strong momentum in the first three quarters of this year, which has consolidated the development of China's export-oriented economy and international trade," said Zhong Shan, chief economist at the Institute of Air Transport, China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology.

China posts record-high air traffic in Q3