Welcome to the Chengdu Open,

It was in 1997 as the Race Director of the first Mild Seven Outdoor Quest Adventure Race in Xichang, Sichuan Province, that my team produced our first event in this region of China. The event went on to become world famous and the best race of its type in the world. I sincerely hope that what we are announcing today will reach the same heights of fame, success and international notoriety.

The city of Chengdu, should be commended for securing Asia¡¦s only official ATP Champions Tour tennis tournament. The success of tennis in China has been phenomenal and history will prove this to be a very smart decision by the City¡¦s leadership. With Beijing and Shanghai hosting huge tournaments, with Chinese players making the semi-finals of Grand Slam singles tournaments, winning doubles gold medals at the Olympic Games and winning Grand Slam doubles titles combined with CCTV¡¦s extensive support of tennis, there is no question that tennis has a very bright future here.

Chengdu is now part of a special group of cities to host an ATP Tour Champions tournament. London, Barcelona, Zurich, Sao Paolo and Paris are all part of an elite family of 12 cities that showcase the biggest stars in tennis ¡V many of whom are more famous than the stars of today. We are extremely fortunate to have one of the strongest, if not the strongest field of stars of any tournament outside of the London Champions Tour Finals. The presence of John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, two of the most famous players ever to play the game, with Michael Chang returning to play an official ATP match in China for the first time since his retirement and with Marcelo Rios who has always played so well in Asia having won titles in Singapore and Hong Kong, adding Mats Wilander, the current Swedish Davis Cup captain, it is a coup for Chengdu and will ensure interest from the public, media and international television stations. Having been on Tour with John and Bjorn last November, I can assure that it is awesome entertainment when they play.

As Tournament Director, my team will work extremely hard to make this a first-class tournament that will, over four days this November, provide nostalgic world-class tennis, entertainment, special photographic ¡§Signature Photo Shoots¡¨ with the players that will be seen worldwide, clinics for Chengdu¡¦s top junior players to support their development, opportunities for fans to meet and get signatures from the players and strong Chinese and international television and media coverage. Also, we will operate a charity element where the players will contribute signed items and experiences (such as the on court coin toss) for auction, with the proceeds going to help those affected by last years devastating earthquake.

It is our intention to build, in your world-class stadium that the players will love, a sporting and social event that the people of Chengdu will look forward to as a social and sporting highlight, year after year. Internationally, Chengdu will be more well known as the city that is home to your world famous pandas.

I want to thank the city of Chengdu and its leadership for the belief in this exciting project, our friends in the Sichuan and Chengdu Sports Bureau¡¦s, our hosts today, the Sichuan Tennis International Hotel for their support, the Chinese Tennis Association, CCTV, our television partners both in China and internationally and the players for choosing to come visit us here in Chengdu.

Thank you!