Li Na's stand set new standard

Li Na, China's retired two-time Grand Slam champion, instructs during a master class at the Wuhan Open in Wuhan, Hubei province, Sept 29, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

Provincial governments have quickly come on board, developing tennis academies and domestic championships - although regional rivalries are a difficult distraction for Chinese players.

"Sport is all state-funded and if a province is a winner in whatever national games then they are even more centrally funded," Salkeld said.

"The tricky part is that the provinces' main objective is to win the national games, which diverts attention away from the professional tennis tours.

"When a player needs to be training on clay to prepare for the qualifications for Roland Garros, or grass to prepare for Wimbledon, they have another schedule going on at the same time. So that has created problems."

However, it is clear that China has embraced the sport, and when that happens, things can move quickly - and in unexpected directions.

Yi Guoqing, tournament director and general manager of the Wuhan Sports Development Institute, said it took just two years from the start of negotiations for the Wuhan Open to become reality.

He compared tennis in China to the market reforms under Deng Xiaoping - dubbed "socialism with Chinese characteristics" - which allowed it to blossom into the world's second largest economy.

"The government means making the policies, the hand of the market is the participation of the society," said Yi.

"Not only in tennis. The whole economy of China is taking the same road. It is changing and I believe it will be more open in the future."

And this may allow the country to create an entirely new model of tennis - one with Chinese characteristics.