Tickets for the 2002 Shanghai Masters tennis tournament, the top-level men's tennis competition, are best selling as the turnover has been over 800,000 yuan (about US$100,000) since the selling began three days ago.
According to the tournament's organizers, more than 200 deluxe ticket packages, priced at 2,500 yuan (about US$300) each, have been sold in the upsurge of local tennis lovers' passion.
It is the first time for such a high-level tennis competition to be held in Asia and in a developing country. Only the top eight players on the ATP rankings this year are qualified for the US$3.7 million tournament set for November 12-17 in Shanghai.
The tickets for a single match are priced from 300 yuan to 800 yuan (about US$36 to 97). And 500 tickets priced at 100 yuan (about US$12) each for a single match are available for students only. There are also two sorts of deluxe ticket packages, priced at 1,900 yuan (about US$240) and 2,500 yuan (about US$300) apiece.
Long queues became a scene in Shanghai, the largest and modern city of China, on the first day of the ticket selling, although it was drizzling from the morning to the evening.
And the countless phone calls for reserving tickets changed the sellers' lines into hot lines. Many Chinese tennis amateurs out of Shanghai made long distance calls for the tickets. A fan from Inner Mongolia came to Shanghai and spent more than 10,000 yuan (about US$1,300) on the packages.
Furthermore, some tickets will be sold in Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan. It is expected that 15 percent of the total spectators will be from other Asian countries, and 5 percent from Europe.
( People's Daily August 23, 2002)
