CRT Tournament to Be Launched in March

　　Tennis lovers across China will come together again in March and reproduce the spectacle of PKs between thousands of players, which had occurred in 2009, as the China Open Rating Tour will be held on March 20 in Guangzhou and Chengdu as a national promotion, according to the CRT executive board.

　　Quite different from the tournament in last year, CRT will become a tennis carnival including series of activities arranged during the event with the pursuit of quality as always.

　　In this year, CRT will launch ball boy selection and collective wedding ceremony recruiting for the first time in cities other than Beijing. The qualified ball boys will be selected to provide "personal services" for super stars such as Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer this year in the National Tennis Center in Beijing, while brides and bridegrooms lucky enough would promise to each other witnessed and blessed by audience and tennis stars in the Lotus Stadium. 【Please visit www.crttennis.com for application】

　　As one of the top tennis tournaments in Asia, the China Open consists of events for men and women, with additional tournaments for junior players, among which the women's events is one of the four WTA Crown Jewel Events featuring mandatory participation of the top 50 female players in the world, which means that super stars including Maria Sharapova, Williams Sisters, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, etc., will certainly play in the event. The men's event is one of the ATP World Tour 500 series tournaments, which calls for participation of more than half of the top 30 players. In 2009, top players including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, etc. went out on the court of the Lotus Stadium with brilliant performance.

　　Same as last year, CRT will be launched in seven central cities (Shenyang, Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Kunming) of six divisions (Northeast, North, East, Central, West, and South) one after another. In the tournament, which is the first national rating tennis tournament in China, the amateur players will be divided into three levels including 3.0 (for fun), 4.0 (elite), and 5.0 (master), and at all levels there would be events including men's singles, women’s singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles.

　　After hard fighting in three seasons of the year, all the top-ranked players in each division will go to Beijing in October, the time of the China Open, to compete for the national championship. Players of the CRT finals would have the chance to meet international stars and participate in the China Open All Star Night and the China Open Carnival, as well as watching the games as spectators in the Lotus Stadium.

　　The CRT had attracted thousands of tennis lovers when it was held for the first time last year. It will provide not only a stage for tennis fans across the country, but also more opportunities for them to participate in the China Open this year. While young guys would be provided with a rare opportunity to be a ball boy, tennis couples are also expected to hold a collective wedding ceremony in the court witnessed by tennis stars, which would be an unforgettable experience.