STORY: Australian Open embraces Chinese audience
SHOOTING TIME: Jan. 14, 2025
DATELINE: Jan. 17, 2025
LENGTH: 00:01:31
LOCATION: MELBOURNE, Australia
CATEGORY: SPORTS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Australian Open
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): RODDY CAMPBELL, Director of partnerships and international business at Tennis Australia
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): RODDY CAMPBELL, Director of partnerships and international business at Tennis Australia
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): RODDY CAMPBELL, Director of partnerships and international business at Tennis Australia

STORYLINE:

The 2025 Australian Open is held at Melbourne Park from Jan. 12 to 26.

The Australian Open embraces its Chinese audience and aims to make them feel like it is their own Grand Slam, tournament organizers said.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): RODDY CAMPBELL, Director of partnerships and international business at Tennis Australia
"We embrace our Chinese audience. So, hopefully it does feel like the slam of Asia-Pacific and we want our Chinese audience to feel like it is their grand slam."

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): RODDY CAMPBELL, Director of partnerships and international business at Tennis Australia
"We have a team that produces content for Weibo, Douyin, WeChat and Red all year round. So we have, you know, 5 million social followers that we've had double-digit growth every year for 7 years in terms of our social audience. So, we continue to invest in content specifically for the Chinese audience."

Tennis Australia, the governing body for tennis in Australia, organizes national and international tournaments, including the Australian Open.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): RODDY CAMPBELL, Director of partnerships and international business at Tennis Australia
"And then, in terms of events, we hold an amateur tennis tournament in conjunction with one of our partners throughout 24 cities in China. And we also have a Wildcard Play-off which we held in Chengdu this year (2024), which is giving an opportunity to play in the Australian Open to the best players from across China and Asia-Pacific. And eventually that's led to partners in the region. So, yeah, we're already on a good path. We have an established strategy, and it's just gonna continue to grow for us."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Melbourne, Australia.
(XHTV)