Tennis stars Marat Safin and Paradorn Srichaphan arrived Beijing yesterday for the promotion of the inaugural China Open, to be held in the Chinese capital on September 13-19 next year.

Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, the first to crack tennis's top 10, attends a news coference in Beijing yesterday. [Reuters]

They, plus former world No 1 Carlos Moya, are the first three top players to be confirmed to take part in the high profile tennis event in China.

It is the first time that the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) moves a world ranking men's tennis tournament to Beijing, which bids to become an international sport city after winning the host right of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The tournament, with an estimated prize money of US$500,000, will attract over 70 world top professional players.

"It's very exciting to move the tournament to Beijing. I believe our players will look forward to coming here to compete," said Brad Drewett, ATP Executive Vice-President.

He said, the ATP and the players experienced the hot atmosphere at the last year's Masters Cup in Shanghai and that success gave them a lot of confidence to award more tournaments to the world's most populous country.

"If the first China Open turns out a huge success, this event will stay in Beijing for many years," he said.

The Beijing Municipal Government has planned to build a new 10,000-seat Centre Court China Open Tennis Centre for this event, which also includes women's, senior and junior invitational tournaments.

"A successful event bases on good facility, good players and good organizations, and I think Beijing have all these ingredients and the China Open will be a success," said Mr Drewett.

As the Asia's highest-ever ranked player, Srichaphan of Thailand was very happy to participate in the ATP tournament in Asia.

"There are not many tournaments in Asia and I am happy to come to Beijing and play in front of Asian people.

"I always feel that I not only play for Thailand but for all of the Asian people and competing in front of them gives me tremendous motivation," said the world No 11 player.

The Asian tennis hero was also glad that the young Chinese kids will have the chance to watch real tennis.

"I hope these kids can be inspired after watching my game. It is very different from what you see from the television."

Recovering from the six months of leg injuries, the former US Open champion Marat Safin is now ready for the next year's competition.

"Although the China Open is in 10 months away, I promise I will come back to Beijing to participate in the tournament if there are no injuries," said the Russian.

"The launch of the China Open is great news for professional tennis. We all know Asia is the fastest growing market for our sport and I am very much looking forward to playing here in Beijing next year."

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