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4Bpencil t1_j306w0k wrote

Reply to comment by luffyuk in WTA says return to China will require resolution to Peng Shuai case. by PrincessBananas85

Im born and have lived there, and I can tell you it definitely is not "one of the more popular sports".

Before you go saying that it is in the bigger cities, I lived in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Nanjing, and again, it definitely isn't one of the more popular sports.

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luffyuk t1_j307w8r wrote

Basketball, badminton, table tennis, football... I'd put tennis after these.

What other sports would you place ahead of tennis?

I play tennis weekly with Chinese colleagues, there are dozens of different clubs for us to choose from, with multiple courts and they're almost all fully booked out in advance.

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4Bpencil t1_j30980u wrote

Couple of things, there is a huge lack of suitable tennis court/gym that supports them, combined with the large Chinese population, ofc everything is booked out in advance. Is not that tennis is a popular sport, is a nich sport with even less facilities to support it.

Normal gyms, yoga, swimming, golf etc you can all place before tennis, combined with the fact that there are so many other entertainment options available, makes tennis not even close to a popular sport there. Just because you and some of your niche coworkers go does it make it a popular sport. Basketball alone sucks up close to 70% of the market. Older population can generally careless about tennis and prefers other forms of exercise like taichi etc, and you would be familiar with the dreaded "guang chang Wu" culture, less tennis with a tiny % population to begin with. It only seems large because of the huge population base.

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luffyuk t1_j30c74a wrote

Your views seem very old and outdated.

As I already said, there are dozens of tennis clubs available for us to choose from within easy traveling distance. On the other hand, there is one golf course, priced completely out of the range of most. There is no way that more people play golf than tennis in China.

Just this past year, two of these closest tennis clubs have been closed for renovations and now boast 30+ courts available! There are even large warehouses being converted into sporting facilities with basketball and tennis inside. If you lived in China now, you would probably have noticed many tennis courts beginning to be paired with the ever popular basketball and football courts. You'll often see the three activities alongside each other now.

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4Bpencil t1_j30dwo3 wrote

...this is ridiculous... Courts renovations of 30+ courts in cities like Beijing and Shanghai is like a drop in the bucket. You can fit the entire population of Canada in either cities. The amount of people that play tennis portionally is very much minimal.

Admittedly last time I spent significant time in China was right before COVID in Shanghai, we had no issues booking courts at all. In contrast all pools and basketball courts are full at all times.

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luffyuk t1_j30faoh wrote

Tennis in China is a rapidly growing sport that has received much private and public support, and has today become firmly entrenched in the Chinese as one of the most popular. Tennis is now the third-most popular sport on television in China, behind Association football and basketball.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_in_China

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4Bpencil t1_j30g5l3 wrote

Your Wikipedia page also mentions that it needs additional verification for support, from 2010 no less.

It also mentions a measly 14m people plays the sport with 30,000 courts, in a country with 1.4 billion people and city that can host entire country populations. Many of these courts are spread in rural areas that can barely even be considered courts. Also considering some of the so called courts are just roughly re netted badminton courts, this is a joke.

It also mentions that one of the major tournaments was held in a stadium in Beijing that host a laughable 10k. Sorry but my middle school stadium holds close to that much, and the stadium wasn't even filled for the final. In a city of 30m you cant even fill a 10k stadium, This is your popular sport lmfao. You really want to read your sources before you provided as "proof".

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luffyuk t1_j30hspt wrote

The participation numbers for tennis in China has grown so rapidly that the country now boasts more tennis players than any other country in the world

Nearly a quarter of all tennis players in the world are from China. This figure comprises all those players that have played the sport at least once in the past year. That’s according to a new survey just published by the International Tennis Federation (ITF)

https://tennishead.net/new-report-highlights-astounding-popularity-of-tennis-in-china/

http://itf.uberflip.com/i/1169625-itf-global-tennis-report-2019-overview/0?

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4Bpencil t1_j30io7r wrote

Number of players total does not prove anything? You are talking about the country which currently boasts the largest population, of course they are going to have a large presence in almost everything they do, welcome to statistics?

Again, if is sooooo popular, how come you can't even fill the WTA final of 10k people, hosted in one of the largest cities in the world by population? Surely you can find 10k people out of the "14m tennis enjoyers" to fill a stadium? Not counting the seats that's already filled by foreign fans?

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