After four days of a massive Sports Trade Show in Beijing it is very apparent that Tennis in general and Clay Courts in particular are now part of the Tennis scene. It reminded me of the old days in Miami as to how busy we were at the booth and the people who wanted to find out about Clay Courts. We showed our above ground Har-tru court in a model, our American Red in a HydroCourt model, and both our Green Har-tru and a European Red Clay in ClayTech models. It was really interesting to see the reactions and the whole point was to establish our partner Chai Yong as the clay court expert of China which has been a hard court world up until the last few years. Lots of education went on as Chai really has become the local expert and with the courts he has built and the experience he has in taking care of them he has most of the answers. It is interesting how you don’t have to know the language to know what they are talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I was worthless unless Chai had a question, but it was like the old days in the sense of educating the folks on how HydroCourt works and all the different options and there pros and cons.
The bottom line is that China is developing a Tennis Market not unlike what we did years ago. No one seems to have any good data on how many folks are playing tennis here but there must be demand or all those people wouldn’t be so interested. Once again the advantages of learning the game on clay is the big driver as the Chinese pride in their athletes and how they look to the world still trumps any comfort issues that may be side benefits to them.
I have meet a lot of great people here and they are extremely hard workers and have been wonderful to me as I muddle my way through the world over here. It is both an adventure and a challenge and I definitely recommend a visit to the world of China.
John Welborn
Lee Tennis
From Beijing, China
No comments:
Post a Comment