Windy Shao

windysjf@hotmail.com

A TOTAL of 353 young players from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) gathered at Mission Hills Shenzhen’s tennis academy for a China Tennis Junior (CTJ) event that kicked off Saturday.

The young players came from GBA cities like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhongshan, as well as other South China cities like Xiamen and Sanya, for the U-series event.

This year saw the largest number of participants since Mission Hills Group inaugurated the GBA tennis elite tournament in 2019, organizers said.

This year’s competitions in the U10 and above categories will be included in the national teenage tennis points ranking system.

Last year’s U10 girls’ champion Liu Yihan, U10 boys’ champion Feng Ziye, U12 boys’ champion Sun Hanzhi, U12 girls’ champion Lin Qiyuan, U14 boys’ champion Chen Ningfan and other outstanding players all competed again this year.

The event includes four stops in May, July, August and October, with each lasting two weekends.

The competition is divided into five groups: U8, U10, U12, U14 and U16 and the top players from each group will enter the grand final in October.