The Association for Tennis Professionals (ATP) CEO International Brad Drewett says the ATP Tour is trying to make sure Beijing realizes its full potential as a tennis city.

The tennis boss visited Beijing on Monday to attend a celebration for the upgrade of the China Open into an ATP 500 Series event.

"I am sure Beijing has great potential to become one of the elite tennis cities in the world," said Drewett. "The ATP will put in more effort in the future to make Beijing fully live up to its potential."

Beijing will join another nine host cities in a revamped 500 Series setting. The 500 Series events are one tier below the nine Masters Series tournaments.

Women's Tennis Association (WTA) had named the China Open as its top Crown-Jewelry event starting in 2009. With the upgrade on the ATP side the tournament becomes one of four major combined events in the world together with the Indian Wells, Miami and the Madrid stops.

Drewett said the new tournament has played a significant role in the development and popularity of tennis not only in Shanghai, but in the whole of China.

"It is a natural progression for Beijing to become an ATP 500 tournament," he said. "I was overwhelmed with the progress that the China Open has made over the past four years. It was just an infant on the tour some years ago, but now it is already one of the best tournament in the world."

"Beijing has the infrastructure and expertise as well as huge public support to stage one of the ATP's top events."

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