One of two 250 tournaments played in the same week in China, the Shenzhen Open marks the official beginning of the ATP World Tour's short but glittering Asian sojourn.
Alongside the Chengdu Open, ATP Shenzhen kicks off the Asian swing and as such always attracts strong fields with top players eager to warm up and attune to the conditions ahead of the 500 events in Beijing and Tokyo the following week, and the penultimate Masters 1000 Series event of the year in Shanghai the week after - and with the Race to London hotting up, you often find high-ranking players eager to boost their chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals with deep runs at the likes of Shenzhen.
The Shenzhen Open is also a WTA Tour International-level event played in January which counts Simona Halep among its champions and was first played in 2013 before the September ATP World Tour event joined it in 2014. The 250-level event is played on outdoor hard courts at the Shenzhen Longgang Tennis Centre, which features 32 outdoor and indoor courts and a 4,000-seat stadium, and offers 250 ranking points to the winner as well as prize money of $760,300.
The draw for the inaugural Shenzhen Open in 2014 featured David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon as well as Andy Murray, who claimed the title after saving five championship points in a thrilling final against Tommy Robredo. Another top-10 fixture, Tomas Berdych, followed Murray to the title in 2015 when he defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and successfully defended the crown in 2016, defeating Gasquet in the final and becoming the first multiple winner of the Shenzhen Open.
In 2017, Alexander Zverev headlined the tournament but it was David Goffin, bouncing back after a freak injury at the French Open had troubled his season, who claimed the third ATP World Tour title of his career when he beat Aleksandr Dolgopolov in the final. Goffin would go on to win the Tokyo 500 the following week.
The 2018 edition of the Shenzhen Open has already made headlines, featuring an on-court proposal from He Yecong to his girlfriend in the stands during qualifying for the tournament (she said yes).