7. Sport in Shanghai

28th October

I have days off on a Friday and a Saturday and I've been lucky to watch some great sporting events.

The Chinese market is one which most people want to get involved in. World sport stars it seems are in more demand than most to spread their brand to China.

In my first week, I went to the Shanghai ATP Masters, a tennis tournament which is highly regarded on the circuit. It was easy to see why. I've been to Wimbledon, the Australian and the US open, but what I liked about this tournament was also a section where you could get rack up points by visiting tennis skills sections, you could then hand in your points and get an award. China is obviously looking to get a better crop of international sport stars. I went at the quarter final stage, and amazingly got to watch Tsonga/Berdych, Murray/Stepanek, Djokovic and Cilic/Federer. The stadium was spectacular, the entertainment and players entrances were both really good. It was Federer who it seemed most of the Chinese public cared about. His brand had spread into China and he was by far the most popular player at the tournament. What was quite interesting was how the players connected with the crowd, Federer gave quite an interview where he said a few things in Chinese, Djokovic signed his name in Mandarin, Murray though didn't do much.

The next week I went to a rugby tournament hosted by the Shanghai Hairy Crab RFC. A team I'm looking to join. The club had 60 playing members which are split into 3 teams: one for players who are here for under a year, and the other two are for players who are here for longer.
The standard was surprisingly good. There were teams attending from all over China. The best team in my opinion was an all Chinese team who destroyed a team with a majority of Japanese players. The Chinese would play quick ball and were very opportunistic with their play.

Finally, I went to the BMW Golf Masters yesterday. It virtually trumped them all. 11 of the 12 Ryder Cup team were present and it was quite amazing to see them all so close. Free to get in, I realized watching live golf is quite a lot of fun given how close you are to the players as they walked from hole to hole. After the 18th hole players were there to sign autographs et al, I wish I'd found this autographing section earlier as I would have loved to meet Darren Clarke. I was lucky to meet Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood though which was physically incredible. I got from them a sense of annoyance though that most of the public didn't really know who they were, so when I started talking about Medinah and Celtic Manor they smiled. Most of the public went mental for Rory McIlroy who had to be guarded by bodyguards and a metal fence to keep the crowd off.

From the time I have been here I feel lucky that I'm in Shanghai where there is a lot of sport to watch and to get involved in and the venues are only a tram ride away.