Hong Kong can’t host top-level tennis unless it revamps Victoria Park: sport’s local chief
Venue ‘not up to standard’ and would have to be rebuilt from scratch to attract elite-level events, Michael Cheng says
Hong Kong will be unable to stage elite-level tennis events unless its decades-old arena in Victoria Park is revamped, the sport’s local chief has said.
The admission came despite praise in the past week from players involved in the lower-tier Prudential Hong Kong Tennis 125 tournament, which was held at the venue.
The Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open will again feature grand-slam women’s champions at the end of this month, and the ATP men’s event will follow at the turn of the year, but those tournaments are at the third-tier 250 level on the respective tours.
Michael Cheng Ming-git, president of the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association, said that could be the ceiling while some aspects of Victoria Park remained below standard, leaving the more prestigious 1000 and 500 tournaments – named after the number of ranking points available – out of reach.
“We did the best we could with what we have and hosted some great tournaments,” he said. “But the hardware was not up to standard and we have reached saturation. There’s no need to think about any 500 or 1000 events.
