Djokovic, who won his first Masters Cup title in Shanghai in 2008, also has good memories of China. He said that he saw the Shanghai Masters Cup as important as a Grand Slam event, because the best eight tennis players in the world participate in the tournament, and his victory in Shanghai was a great personal achievement.

Despite the absence of Rafael Nadal, the 2008 Masters Cup had a 93-percent attendance rate with more than 110,000 spectators, although this was the first time a Masters Cup lacked the presence of a current world No. 1 player. In total, almost 500,000 spectators have watched the tournament in the past five years, said the event’s official website.

Brad Drewett, CEO of the Tournament Director of the Masters Cup and ATP International, feels very satisfied with the achievement of the Shanghai Masters Cup. “We have had an unbelievably successful five Tennis Masters Cup events held in Shanghai, and a strong legacy for the sport of tennis has been created in Shanghai and in China,” he told tennistalk.com.

The Masters Cup has also boosted Shanghai’s economy, as it attracted tennis enthusiasts throughout China and the rest of the world. The statistics released by the organizing committee of the Masters Cup show that two thirds of the ticket buyers were overseas fans, who spent foreign currencies in the city.

Moreover, the event also created a large number of job opportunities in China. The Masters Cup employs nearly 4,000 people each year, and the number is expected to rise to more than 5,000 for the ATP Masters 1000 in 2009.

Yu Chen, Director of Shanghai Administration of Sports and Managing Deputy Director of Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai Organizing Committee, said in an article on asapsports.com that the tennis market in Shanghai has developed rapidly, with more people attracted to the sport and more related facilities established. Shanghai has become known as the Tennis City, which is largely attributed to the successful holding of the Tennis Masters Cup, he said.

To continue this success, the ATP will launch a World Tour Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, which will attract the world’s top players in a 56-draw for singles.

Next season will see the men’s professional game taken to the next level, with a new ATP World Tour Asia concluding in Shanghai, featuring all the best players in the world, Drewett said.

The good crisis management capability of Shanghai is also a factor of the success of the Masters Cup. The organizing committee of the Masters Cup has successfully handled some pull-out events involving star players such as Andy Ram, Yoni Erlich and Rafael Nadal. As a result of Shanghai’s excellent organizing work, the Masters 1000 will have its own Chinese director for the tournament in 2009.

In addition, ATP will adopt compulsory participation measures for the players next season to prevent pull-outs without any reason. ATP has even planned to establish an institution evaluating jury.

This could be bad news to the big names. But to the emerging tennis market in Shanghai, it’s a stimulant. Regardless of the world economic slowdown, Shanghai has almost concluded sourcing investors for the 2009 Masters 1000 event.

However, Etienne de Villiers, Executive Chairman of ATP, thinks that China still lacks passion for tennis, despite the commercial success of the Shanghai Masters Cup. He suggests the sport be more popularized in China and the Masters Series will be a good way to realize this.

Leon Sun, General Manager of the Shanghai Juss Event Management Center and organizer of the ATP Masters Series, admitted there is a big gap between China and the countries where tennis has a long history and is very popular.

He said that China is short of historical background of tennis. According to him, the Australian Open, the youngest of the four Grand Slam events, boasts a history of over 100 years, but China’s tennis history is only 10 years old. Compared to the four Grand Slams, China still has a long way to go.