World No.2 Roger Federer is surrounded by Chinese reporters when he arrives at the Pudong Airport, Shanghai, in November 2006, to participate in the Masters Cup

The last Tennis Masters Cup came to an end on November 16, 2008. In the season-ending tournament, world No. 3 player Novak Djokovic from Serbia managed a 6:1 and 7:5 win over Russian Nikolay Davydenko at the Qizhong Stadium, Shanghai. In future the event will become known as the ATP World Tour Final and move to London in 2009. Shanghai, the city that has hosted five Masters Cup events, will play host to the ATP Masters 1000 in 2009.

The predecessor of the Tennis Masters Cup was the Tour World Championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). On December 9, 1999, the Committee of the four Grand Slam tournaments and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced the discontinuity of the ATP Tour World Championship and the Grand Slam Cup. A new jointly owned event of men’s tour tournaments, called the Tennis Masters Cup, was set up in 2000. Two years later the Masters Cup entered China.

WINNING TOUCH: Serbian ace Novak Djokovic kisses the cup after winning the Shanghai Masters 2008

The Masters Cup brought tennis mania to Shanghai, greatly helping popularize the sport in the city. At first, the ATP had to hold pre-tournament news conferences for the Chinese media to spread information about what the ATP was and how the Masters Cup operated.

But today, things have changed. According to the Shanghai-based newspaper Xinmin Evening News, the number of people playing tennis in Shanghai has risen from 100,000 in 2002 to 600,000 currently, and the number of tennis courts has increased from 200 to over 2,000. According to the official website of the Shanghai Masters Cup, 4 million people in China have taken up tennis since the first Masters Cup was held in Shanghai.

Roger Federer, four-time winner of the Shanghai Masters Cup, was deeply impressed by the enthusiastic fans in China. “I know I have great fans here in China, so I’m looking forward to coming back next year,” he told tennisnews.com in November 2008.