When Zheng Qinwen lifted the China Open women's singles championship trophy, the 2026 China Open also came to an end at this historic moment. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the China Open, Chinese players have reached the top of the domestic arena, which not only gives this tournament the significance of surpassing victory and defeat, but also pushes public attention to tennis to a new high. The Chinese Open came to an end, and the ongoing Shanghai Rolex Masters immediately took over, extending the autumn tennis craze from Beijing to Shanghai. Looking back at the past two years, the rise of tennis in the Chinese market can no longer be simply attributed to single events or individual star players.

On October 11th, the organizing committee of the China Open announced that various data for the 2026 China Open, including match numbers, audience numbers, and commercial operation data, have reached new highs. During the tournament, the total number of visitors to the National Tennis Center is expected to exceed 450000, a year-on-year increase of 25%; Among them, 60% of the audience are from outside Beijing, with nearly 10000 overseas viewers. As of now, the overall box office of China Open has reached 132 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48%, setting a new historical high. According to data released by the Tennis Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, as of the end of August 2024, the tennis population in China reached 25.1884 million, an increase of 28.03% compared to 2021. At the same time, consumer signals on content platforms are rapidly amplifying. According to trend data from Xiaohongshu, by 2025, the monthly active users of platform tennis enthusiasts will exceed 57 million, and the search volume for "tennis skirts" will exceed 100 million.

These numbers point to participation, interest, search, and discussion, but together they present a change: tennis is extending from professional arenas to dressing, watching, socializing, and urban leisure. In the past, brands mainly competed for people who truly played tennis; Now, the competition has expanded to a wider "pan tennis crowd" - they may not yet be high-frequency players, but are willing to pay for tennis equipment, viewing experiences, community activities, and lifestyle consumption.

The dimensions of brand competition have changed accordingly. Wilson relies on rackets and professional equipment to establish authority on the field, Nike influences young consumers through athletes, performance products, and global sports culture, while Ralph Lauren excels in managing American classics and spectator attire. FILA has chosen the Chinese Open as its core pivot, integrating on and off court tennis products, event experience, mass participation, youth development, and Italian lifestyle into the same tennis strategy, accompanying consumers throughout the entire process from interest to genuine participation.

At the 20th anniversary of the China Open in 2026, FILA's investment will be upgraded again, almost covering both inside and outside the tournament: launching the FILA x CHINA OPEN joint series, providing professional shoe and clothing support for ball boys, referees and other event personnel, and also releasing the "Stable Technology Platform" and the first flagship NETTO TITAN Tiger shoe under this platform during the tournament; Taking inspiration from the life of a small town in southern Italy, a Have a FILA Day themed space, a tennis market, and a "tennis April style" dressing style were created to cater to a wide range of interest groups. In addition, brand tennis spokesperson Bu Yunchao Ke Te, dressed in the FILA jersey, participated in the competition and won the first set against Djokovic, demonstrating his competitive strength and becoming a hot topic of discussion in this year's China Open season. Off the court, brand spokesperson Wang Anyu, brand ambassador Sun Qian, as well as artists such as Liu Xianhua, Wu Zun's family, and Tian Liang's family, successively appeared at the FILA China Open Market. Through dressing up, fun interaction, and on-site experience, they brought the brand's tennis style into a more relaxed living scene. Their participation not only provides consumers with inspiration for dressing, but also allows tennis topics to reach fashion and entertainment audiences outside of the sports industry. The Chinese Open has become a window to observe FILA's "360 degree tennis strategy" and has given the brand's tennis tradition a more contemporary expression.

01

Before tennis became popular, FILA was already present

FILA's entry into this round of tennis fever is not about chasing the trend from scratch.

Tennis is the earliest sports product line developed by FILA. As early as 1973, FILA launched the White Line tennis series, which broke the tradition of pure white tennis clothing with vivid colors and design language, bringing Italian aesthetics to professional courts. Since then, from the classic striped Polo worn by legendary players such as Bj ö rg to extending the "elegant rebellious" style represented by tennis beyond the court, tennis has always been a highly recognizable sports gene in the history of the FILA brand.

The expansion of tennis consumption in China today has provided new commercial expression space for this period of history. It is no longer just a brand heritage that can be narrated, but has begun to transform into a realistic starting point for consumers to understand FILA tennis professionalism, aesthetic style, and product credibility.

For sports brands, the value of historical accumulation lies not only in creating nostalgic emotions. Tennis has a high professional threshold, and consumers will simultaneously judge whether the brand understands sports, whether it has products that can withstand verification, and whether the aesthetic represented by the brand is in line with their lifestyle. The tennis tradition of FILA provides a common cultural source for these two judgments.

But historical assets do not automatically turn into growth. Brands also need to transform the design language and champion memories from history into products and scenarios that consumers can wear, use, and participate in today. As a result, Zhongwang has become a key platform for FILA to activate this asset: it can not only verify the professionalism on the field, but also concentrate on expressing the style offline.

Therefore, FILA has been heavily investing in tennis under the new ONE FILA strategy since last year, which not only utilizes long-term advantageous assets but also responds to changes in China's consumption structure. The tennis genes accumulated in the past provide professional and cultural endorsement, while China Open pushes this brand asset to real arenas and mass consumption scenarios, opening up space for subsequent product, community, and retail transformation.

02

How FILA amplifies the long-term value of the Chinese Open both on and off the field

In 2026, China Open will celebrate its 20th anniversary, and FILA's cooperation with the tournament will enter its eighth year, with a strategic partnership renewed for the next six years. After upgrading to the exclusive official sports shoe and clothing sponsor of the China Open in 2025, the cooperation between the two sides has further shifted from event sponsorship to the co construction of a more complete tennis ecosystem. For FILA, the value of the China Open lies not only in the brand exposure during the tournament, but also in its connection with professional courts, public participation, and tennis consumption, covering various age groups including teenagers. As a result, the China Open has transformed from a sponsorship resource to a centralized landing point for FILA's tennis strategy.

Top tier events are responsible for generating concentrated attention, but the long-term value depends on two things: whether more ordinary consumers can truly step onto the court and continue to participate; The second is whether the aesthetic and cultural influence formed by the competition can be brought offline and enter into more frequent consumption and life scenes.

FILA ACE CLUB offers a way to host the China Open member team competition. The competition will start in July 2026 and cover 12 cities across the country. A total of 108 teams and 1200 amateur players have registered to participate. The champion teams from each city will eventually meet at the National Tennis Center, and the championship and runner up battles will take place at the Bullard Stadium. For ordinary tennis enthusiasts, this means that the top-level venues for professional events are no longer just stages for watching from a distance, and they also have the opportunity to truly stand on the courts of top-level events.

The FILA KIDS Diamond Cup Youth Tennis Challenge further extends this system to children and families. In the 2026 season, the competition covers 27 cities across the country, attracting over 5000 young people to participate, forming a four level promotion system from club matches to finals. From October 5th to 7th, the final will also be held at the National Tennis Center, where young players can experience professional matches up close through the official caddy service of the China Open, professional electronic line assistance in refereeing, and diamond court awards. Combining year-round special training and international competition opportunities, the Diamond Cup connects competition, training, and growth, and extends FILA's connection with families from just watching a game to children's daily exercise and continuous growth.

Thus, mass events, youth development, and event services together form the "on field" path: allowing people of different ages and identities to enter the middle net as participants rather than spectators.

Off the court, FILA transformed the heat of the tennis tournament into a more perceptible consumer experience through the first tennis carnival "Have A FILA Day" themed space.

This creative concept is inspired by the town of POSITANO on the southern coast of Italy, where the Mediterranean sun, lemon, and clay tennis courts are important elements of local life. FILA replicated this experience in the Chinese Open, creating the CASA FILA Tennis Life Home and the "POSITANO Town", allowing consumers to access products, participate in interactions, stay socially, and watch matches. At the same time, FILA combines classic items from the FILA TENNIS tennis collection with the FILA MILANO high-end sports fashion collection or FILA HERITAGE style collection, creating a "tennis April style" for the 2026 China Open season, attempting to establish a more vivid expression of dressing for Chinese tennis. Professional competitions are no longer just about competition, but have also become the entrance for Italian aesthetics to enter people's lives.

On field paths increase the depth of participation, while off field paths expand the radius of interest. Both paths revolve around the China Open, but they respectively undertake the functions of user cultivation and lifestyle dissemination, allowing a concentrated event to extend to the community, product consumption, and brand relationships throughout the year.

03

From marketing competition to system competition, FILA is competing for the right to define

Sponsorship of events, athlete signings, community events, and tennis apparel can help brands quickly establish a tennis mindset. But when more consumers actually pick up the racket, competition will shift from "whether it can be seen" to "whether the product is good to use". Marketing determines the speed at which a brand enters consumers' view, while products determine how far a brand can go on the public stage. For tennis, a sport with a high professional threshold, volume can shorten entry time, but it cannot replace long-term response to real sports needs.

Tennis involves frequent starting, braking, and lateral movement, and consumers have different requirements for the support, stability, slip resistance, cushioning, and wear resistance of sneakers compared to daily sports shoes. Clothing also needs to maintain a balance between athletic functionality, on field standards, and aesthetic expression.

The enterprise university research cooperation project between FILA, Beijing Sport University, and Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology has also entered a new stage of rooting during this Chinese tennis season. On September 23rd, the "Beijing Sport University Feile Sports Tennis Science and Innovation R&D Center" and the "FILA Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology Tennis Equipment Design and R&D Center" were respectively unveiled and established, constructing a research system covering sports science, shoe and clothing design, and equipment performance. Beijing Sport University has advantages in top disciplines such as sports human science, intelligent sports engineering, and sports training. Through professional data collection, sports performance testing, and biomechanical analysis, it provides a basis for product development; The Beifu Tennis Research and Development Center focuses on clothing design, material innovation, and fashion aesthetics to explore professional tennis apparel that better fits the body shape and aesthetic trends of Asians.

At the unveiling ceremony, multiple research teams from the two centers also showcased the phased achievements of their respective projects. Among them, the Beiti team has completed professional mechanical testing and comprehensive evaluation of FILA NETTO POINT and ACE children's tennis shoes, and is simultaneously promoting specialized testing of professional and adult sneakers; The tennis equipment project is evaluated through multiple rounds of racket combat and wind tunnel testing, and the test results are applied to the development of FILA Falcon tennis rackets; The research team of Beifu is working together with FILA to promote the development of a series of professional tennis uniforms for adults and teenagers, and continues to explore innovative designs around the structure, functional performance, and design. These achievements have enabled FILA's "technology+aesthetics" collaboration launched last year to truly translate into products.

The stable technology platform for tennis shoes and the first flagship FILA Netto Titan Tiger shoe released by FILA during the China Open are concrete results of scientific research entering the product side.The platform is jointly developed by Beijing Sport University and ANTA Group Science Innovation Laboratory, and responds to the dual needs of stability and agility in professional tennis through three major modules: multi-dimensional agile midsole, parameterized upper, and outsole slip control system; The parameterized shoe upper also incorporates the research results of Tongji University's aerospace mechanics. As the industry's first product to apply titanium technology to professional tennis shoes on sale, Tiger Shoes addresses the real problems of athletes' rapid changes in direction and emergency braking, and builds a comprehensive and advanced professional sports protection system for them. Its significance lies not only in launching a new pair of products, but also in FILA starting to replace single point product innovation with sustainable iterative platform research and development.

The brand barrier established by FILA is not a marketing action that is easily imitated, but rather the ability to transform basic research and laboratory development in universities into products, verify products on real competition venues such as the China Open and member events, and reach consumers through community and retail circulation. Professional technology, Italian aesthetics, and local operations can only form a system that is difficult to replicate quickly if they are interlocked.

This system also extends to the ESG practices of the brand - for example, FILA has completed the first domestic brand sustainable tennis court in Qingdao, reconstructing the court with 20600 recycled and abandoned tennis balls, further embedding sustainable concepts into the tennis ecology.

From the White Line to the "Tennis Ap Wind", from the professional arena of the China Open to the FILA ACE CLUB mass tournament, from the youth training of the FILA KIDS Diamond Cup to the participation of the entire family, and then to the university research and development center and stable technology platform, FILA is integrating tennis history, product innovation, and China market operation into a long-term capability.

As far as the China Open is concerned, FILA is no longer just competing for attention during the tournament, but participating in shaping a longer-term relationship between Chinese consumers and tennis: from being attracted by a game, to picking up a racket and walking onto the court, to integrating tennis into clothing, social and daily life. When a brand can respond to both professional needs on the field and define aesthetic expression off the field, the brand mission of "sports for beauty" is no longer an abstract proposition, but a concrete and tangible way of life. Brands have limited time to occupy a competition, and being able to participate in shaping a way of life means truly establishing their own home ground.

What FILA wants to leave behind is not just a memory of a Chinese tennis match, but also another imagination of Chinese consumers about tennis life.