China Open 2010

After working one-on-one with the players and WTA/ATP officers,  the China Open staff,  and the reporters and studio teams from Associated Press, Reuters, China Daily, U. COM, Tennis Channel, CCTV, etc., I can't imagine a job where I could have learned more about the way a major event works. The internship was amazing,  and even though we worked crazy long hours and sometimes barely had time to sit down (or eat!) I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Here's a video I made of photos from my media relations internship in Beijing at the 2010 China Open:



All of the photos in the video are mine, except for the montage of players at the end. Here are a few of the players I specifically worked with or had a memorable experience with during the tournament:

{in order  from the end of the video:}

• Andrea Petkovic: That's an official press photo from a private clinic she did with a father and son before the tournament. Katie and I brought her to the clinic along with a Player Relations Staff member on a golf cart.  We got to keep the ball she hit around. 
• John Isner: Not just the winner of the world's longest tennis match, or the tallest person I've ever seen, but my favorite tennis player. 
• Caroline Wozniacki: Loved her during the tournament, and she won a match that put her at the #1 WTA world ranking! Got to carry her trophy to the press conference. 
• Ana Ivanovic: She said she liked my hair and we got to talking on the way to press. Love her!
• Novak Djokovic: He won the 2010 China Open, and was hilarious in  press conferences and on the way to his interviews.  He kept a good attitude even when a Reuters reporter tried to twist his words on the amount of smog at the tournament. 
• Francesca Schiavone: My favorite Italian player.  I was able to bring two reporters to meet with her one-on-one by myself in the player's lounge after she stopped me in the hallway worried about her press schedule. 
• Gilles Simon: The French player who lost to Djokovic. Josh Barone was able to land an amazing one-on-one interview with Simon after his match because we pushed it through to the ATP officer!
• Bryan Brothers: They move completely in sync, even just walking around the player's lounge! It's freaky.
• Vera Zvonareva: She is a pro at doing press, so once we brought around a "rookie" player with us to watch the way she answers questions during her press conferences, one-on-one interviews, and CCTV studio interviews. She just has a great attitude and comes off very confident. 
• Ivan Ljubicic: He was one of the first players we watched on the practice courts.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova: She was concerned about her "new haircut" before her first interview with CCTV. She's won the China Open in the past and had a ton of initial press about her expectations. 
• Andy Murray: Poor guy kept having to do take after take trying to get the lines right for a commercial raising money for children after playing a tough match. 
• Li Na: China's sweetheart. She was the favorite of all the fans and was so sweet in press, even though her conferences were the longest.
• Maria Sharapova: She was one of the players I knew the best, and it was so surreal to watch her warming up in the hallways with her coach before a match. 

There were a ton of other players, obviously, but those were one's I specifically had a lot of time with! I still can't believe what an amazing experience I had-- I learned so much about doing media from the players, the WTA and ATP officers, and the press,  from how hectic it can be when things go wrong (when they don't speak the same language!) to how smoothly it goes when all sides understand each other and have a comfort level that allows clear communication.

So much goes on behind the scene to make a tournament like this successful!The ATP staff kept asking us if we were going to be in Shanghai for the next ATP tournament.  Let's just say I would still be traveling around the world if that were possible!

Beijing Recap

A little Beijing sight seeing...

China Open 2010

A group of Journalism students and faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia received a formal presentation from Mr. Yabin Zhang, the Managing Editor of the Beijing Daily Tribune and Chairman of the China Open Tennis Company, LTD.  Mr. Zhang began formulating plans for China Open in 2003, and founded the first official China Open tennis championship in 2004.

Chairman of the Board, Mr. Yabin Zhang at the China Open in 2009.

Built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the venue for the 2010 China Open features 17 tennis courts, including Lotus Stadium, which seats up to 12,000 spectators.  The largest court at the stadium, Court 1, can seat 2,000 people.  In 2009, over 110 broadcasting nations picked up over 2,220 hours of coverage of the 2009 China Open.  

Lotus Stadium, National Tennis Center built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Now in its 7^th year, the China Open is one of the most extensive tennis tournaments in Asia, featuring a 2010 event prize money pool of up to 6.6 million USD.  Ranked the 8^th top tennis tournament in the world, the China Open will be held October 1^st through October 10^th at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.

Although not quite as large as the U.S. Open, the China Open tennis championship is a huge deal for China.  The Top 50 female players from the WTA will compete this fall at the tournament in addition to select players from ATP Men’s Top 30.  Corporate sponsors of the event include Mercedes Benz, Sony Erikson, Corona, ThinkPad, Rolex, and Citic Bank.

The Chinese government plays a large part in the planning and administration of all major events in China.  The General Administration of Sports for the People’s Republic of China and the Beijing Municipal Government hosts the 2010 event.  Liu Peng, Minister of the General Administration of Sports, forms the organizational committee along with Guo Jinlong, the Mayor of Beijing.  Both Peng and Jinlong also played a large part in organizing the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It’s crucial to understand the role government plays in planning and organizing major events such as the China Open, which is the only major event other than the 2008 Beijing Olympics that is able to offer international media internships to students.  Mr. Zhang’s company must comply with government regulations in the planning and management of the tournament.

 Mr. Yabin Zhang presents a plaque at the 2009 China Open.

After a positive experience with University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism students at the 2009 China Open, Mr. Zhang and his committee have invited approximately ten journalism students to the 2010 China Open to assist in tournament reporting.  Positive relations from last year’s program allow the Journalism School to continue to foster good relations with the Chinese, which greatly benefits the institution in Columbia. Students traveling to Beijing in the fall will be responsible for covering five matches daily, assisting in the planning of press conferences and interviews, and working in the Player’s Lounge.

Photos courtesy of http://www.chinaopen.com.cn/en/2010/