One match, five million views: The clash that had Open officials giddy

A peak audience of 1.6 million tuned into the all-Chinese third-round Australian Open match between rising star Zheng Qinwen and Wang Yafan on China’s 24-hour sports channel CCTV5.

Zheng, ranked 15th in the world and billed as local superstar Li Na’s heir apparent, outlasted Wang in a third-set tie-breaker, with more than five million views on the channel across the two-hour, 40-minute match.

China’s Zheng Qinwen is ranked the 15th best women’s tennis player in the world and also the 15th highest-paid female sportsperson, but will climb on both measures if she wins the Australian Open.

To put that into perspective, a full day of AO coverage across all Nine channels is generating about 4.8 million views, while the audience for Alex de Minaur’s five-set epic against Andrey Rublev on Sunday night peaked at 1.86 million.

Now imagine the numbers for the Zheng-Wang contest once Guandong TV, Shanghai TV, iQIYI and CCTV5+ are added in.

To say Craig Tiley’s team at Tennis Australia is giddy about China’s interest would be an understatement, and underlines the populous country’s importance to the sport.

Before Li, who is in Melbourne this week for the 10-year anniversary of her 2014 Australian Open title, tennis was something of an afterthought, behind the likes of basketball, soccer, table tennis and badminton.

However, an International Tennis Federation report five years ago revealed almost 23 per cent of the sport’s participation comes from China – equating to about 20 million people – and the flow-on effect is being felt at the professional level.

Zheng, known affectionately as “Queen Wen”, will play her second-straight grand slam quarter-final Wednesday night against Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya and is the headline act among seven Chinese women in the top 100.

The 21-year-old also met Li – one of her idols – for the first time on Saturday, with the dual grand slam champion sneaking into one of her interviews and playfully slapping her on the bottom.

“It is good for her, and for China tennis,” Li said of Zheng’s success. “I’m happy to see a lot of young players grow up [and start making their mark]. I think it’s big chance for her for this year.”

Qinwen Zheng and Yafan Wang embrace at the net after their hard-fought third-round match at the Australian Open; a contest that attracted more than five million views on China’s 24-hour sports TV station.

Forbes ranked Zheng at No.15 last year in the world’s highest-paid female athletes, combining her $US1.7 million ($2.6 million) prizemoney with her $US5.5 million ($8.4 million) in off-court earnings, including sponsorships with Nike, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Rolex, Wilson Sporting Goods and Alibaba Group.

That number will skyrocket if she makes the Australian Open final, even more so if she wins it.

“The timing of her run is so good now because tennis was dormant in China for virtually three years, particularly on the back of the Peng Shuai situation, as well as COVID,” Peter Johnston, who was based in Beijing from 2012-14 as the WTA’s Asia-Pacific managing director, told this masthead.

“Now, you’ve got the ‘Queen’ motoring along, following on from the support act of the other girls in the top 100, and also the men are kicking on, with Zhizhen Zhang, ‘Jerry’ [Juncheng] Shang and Wu Yibing.

“They have tournaments up and running again, and tennis is back on all cylinders in China, so Qinwen is only turbocharging it.”

Zhang has been a trailblazer for Chinese men’s tennis, becoming the first to break into the top 100 in the ATP rankings and creating more history on Tuesday, when he and Czech partner Tomas Machac advanced to the Australian Open men’s doubles semi-finals.

No Chinese player had won an ATP title until Wu managed the feat at the Dallas Open in February last year.

But the most excitement, at least on the men’s side, is reserved for former junior world No.1 Shang, an 18-year-old who progressed to the third round as a wildcard at this year’s Australian Open.

China’s top-ranked women’s tennis player Zheng Qinwen signs autographs for fans after defeating her compatriot Wang Yafan.

Less known is that there is not a centralised tennis program in China, but there are significant financial incentives from the federation for local stars to compete in events such as the Asian Games.

Zheng Qinwen, the only women’s seed left in the top half of the draw, said Chinese tennis was in “a really good position”.

“I think generally it’s obvious China has really good tennis players in women and men,” she said. “All of us are trying to develop and improve as best as we can. Some of us are young.”

Johnston, who has served as tournament director for a number of ATP and WTA events in China, including on ongoing role with the ATP 250 Zhuhai Championships, said the “explosion” of tournaments was the springboard for the country’s success.

The number of elite events in China increased from two to seven while he was working in Beijing at the height of Li’s popularity.

“There is more accessibility, more courts and more opportunities being created,” Johnston said.

“The government is getting behind the sport, in terms of building facilities – and the Chinese love it. They get to watch the ATP and WTA events week in, week out on iQIYI, and we know China love their superstars.”

Watch all the Australian Open action live on Nine, 9Gem, 9Now and ad-free on Stan Sport.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.