Pete Sampras and the Champions Tour moves to Chengdu

Written by: Global Chick on 27th October 2011

Pete Sampras and the Champions Tour moves to Chengdu |

The ATP Champions Tour has now landed in Chengdu in China. The Chengdu Open commences tomorrow with an impressive line up of players. The city of Chengdu is known at the Home of the Giant Panda.

The tournament is being played for the third year this year. The player field in 2009 consisted of legends like super Swede Bjorn Borg and American super brat John McEnroe. Swede Thomas Enqvist captured the Chengdu title that year. The following year in 2010 Brit Greg Rusedski became the Champion after defeating Pete Sampras in the final.

This year’s competitors are Pete Sampras of the United States, Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, Wayne Ferreria of South Africa, Carlos Moya of Spain, Mark Philppoussis of Australia, Marat Safin of Russia and Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan.

The tournament starts on the 27^th of October and runs until the 30^th of October at the Sichuan International Tennis Center. The main stadium at the site holds almost 7000 spectators.

The eight players are divided into two groups. All players will face each other. The top player in each group will play in the final and the runners up in each group will play off for third and fourth place.

In group A is: El Aynaoui, Ferreria, Safin and Sampras. In group B are: Enqvist, Moya, Philippoussis, Srichaphan.

The schedule for Thursday is:

3.30 pm start

Safin vs. Ferreria

Enqvist vs. Srichaphan

Enqvist/Chen vs. Ferreria/Li

Moya vs. Philippoussis

Sampras vs. El Aynaoui

The tournament is massively popular in China. Li Na has created a tennis craze in the country and China currently hosts the Shanghai Rolex Masters and the Beijing Open on the ATP Tour.

Topics: ATP Champions Tour