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October 12, 2015

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Home » Supplement » Tennis Masters Cup

Tournament continues to reach new heights

By Bivash Mukherjee | October 12, 2015, Monday | Print Edition

Michael Luevano and tennis in China are inextricably linked with each other. Much of the success that is the Shanghai Rolex Masters can be credited to him.

A veteran of 20 years in Asia with stints that also included time in Hong Kong, Luevano’s man-management and administrative skills have ensured that the top players keep returning to Shanghai — year after year.

The Shanghai Masters features the world’s best in a 56-player draw for singles, and is the finale to the three-week Asian swing of the ATP World Tour. It was voted ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year from 2009 to 2013.

Luevano’s obvious enthusiasm for Shanghai has paid off handsomely with the city government bestowing on him its highest honor — the Magnolia Gold Award. That the award happened just weeks before the 7th edition of the 2015 Shanghai Rolex Masters was icing on the cake.

As tournament director of the Shanghai Rolex Masters, Luevano has seen the event grow leaps and bounds. He’s also witnessed the development of key infrastructure for the sport itself — starting with the tennis facility in Minhang District. Luevano insists it “is as good as any Grand Slam venue” and it was simply a matter of “time” before the tournament became a premier event.

With access to some of the best names in the business, Luevano shares with Shanghai Daily some of his thoughts about the tournament, the players, and tennis in this part of the world.

On the future of tennis in Asia:

The Asian market is still an untapped market because tennis is not the core sport. It does not have the history like the Australian, European and the US markets. It is still developing so there will be natural organic growth through time.

In terms of academies, my own experience is if you don’t take a long view and you are not willing to move here it is not going to happen. It could take some investments in the future. There are tennis academies ... There is CTCA, which are our official partners. But in terms of big names, at some point they will have to take some interest in Asia. But to make it viable it will take some investments.

On the emergence of Novak Djokovic, a two-time winner in Shanghai:

Novak won his fifth China Open title last year. He won twice in Shanghai. He likes it here. When I met him in 2005, he was so much different than he is now ... He was very enthusiastic of being involved in the game, the governance of the game, thrilled to qualify and be a part of his first tennis Masters. I think over time, living in the shadows of big guns like Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) ... where you are playing the semifinals and finals consistently where you are not the favorite player, it sort of gets to you. It can be tough.

At the US Open final, you could see the crowd was favoring Roger. To his credit, the outstanding champion that he is, he has become resilient beyond belief where you have to beat him. He won’t crack. He won’t have a mental lapse. Through all that adversity, through the shadow of these guys he is able to win.

He is more serious now, very focused, He is still very cordial but serious ... He means business and just goes around doing just that. His reign at the top is no way in jeopardy, and he won’t let go of the crown ...

Players to watch out for in Shanghai:

Is there any Pete Sampras or Rafa or Lleyton Hewitt who are winning tournaments at the age of 16 and 17 now? No. That is all changing. Everybody is playing longer. There is the other end now. Roger is 34. That means Novak is going to play at a higher level for six to seven years.

So you take it on one end and you get it on the other, which is probably better. Players are maturing and being able to play longer. There is no Michael Chang any more. There are teenagers who are making inroads ... Jack Sock, Nick Kyrgios, Alexander Zverev, Borna Coric, Dominic Thiem, Thanasi Kokkinakis — you have got that kind of guys in the main draw.

The old guard is slowly changing. But these youngsters will always be up against the big names. There is Stan Wawrinka, this year’s French Open champion, to look out for. Then there is Kei Nishikori, Asia’s No. 1, for one. He had a terrible year here last year, but he will be another one to watch.

Honestly since 2009, the only big surprise was Nikolay Davydenko. Otherwise you are looking at the high-ranking players producing some end of the week matches. Only Rafa (of the top-ranked players) has not had any success here.

On Qizhong Tennis Center:

Last year, we set an attendance record. We did 152,000 over eight days. We are also seeing a lot of inbound traffic. What is new this year is we will have a new cooperative sharing tennis populace in Asia. We are already ahead in ticket sales. It has generally grown in the last five years, and we think we are in a good place.

There is some talk of linking the stadium with Metro in the future. If that works out it will help enormously.

It is a double-edged sword with tennis venues. You need the space to build and expand. Look at the French Open at Roland Garros. They can’t even move. They are landlocked. They can’t even get their own people to build a roof over the stadium. That could be a death sentence. Even with Wimbledon, on any given day, it is an hour from London — no different than the time taken to reach Qizhong Tennis Center now.

But we have plenty of space to grow. We have built our footprints. Qizhong is as big as any Grand Slam. They are thinking long term. When I hear and have conversations about attendance we have to give it time. Take Palm Springs in the US as an example. It is two hours outside Los Angeles. About 10 years ago their attendance was about 150,000. Now it is over 450,000. So there is a natural time factor. I would say given our annual increase, the Chinese market is leapfrogging the normal progression. What took them 10 years to achieve we are getting it done in five years. If we have a subway stop in the future (just like F1 in Jiading) we will have an immediate 15 percent increase in attendance.

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