ATP Shenzhen

David Goffin returns to defend his title alongside former champion Andy Murray and rising Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas when the 2018 Shenzhen Open is played 24-30 September 2018.

ATP Shenzhen tennis is live from 24-30 September with play starting around 3pm local/8am BST. Bookmaker bet365 are offering customers the opportunity to watch a live stream of the matches alongside in-play betting.

Fresh from participating in Team Europe's successful defense of their Laver Cup title in Chicago, David Goffin aims for another title defense as he heads to Shenzhen where he claimed the third ATP World Tour title of his career 12 months ago. Goffin's Shenzhen victory was crucial in his qualifying for the ATP Finals in 2017, where he went on to beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on his way to the final, and the Belgian currently sits in 12th place on the Race to London - could he boost his chances by defending his Shenzhen title this week?

A man who knows all about winning in Shenzhen and going on to qualify for London is Andy Murray, who did just that in dramatic style in 2014 as he saved five championship points to beat Tommy Robredo and claim the title as part of a late-season surge to make the year-end championships. 

A place among the elite eight at the ATP Finals is out of reach for Murray in 2018, who has played just five tournaments this season after missing the last six months of 2017 and undergoing hip surgery in January. The former world no. 1 insists there is reason for optimism as he makes cautious strides in his recovery, and he has no reason to hold anything back in Shenzhen as he has announced he will end his season after Beijing to focus on rehab and reconditioning for 2019.

Goffin and Murray are joined by rising stars Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas, both of whom are pursuing their first ATP World Tour titles, at the 2018 Shenzhen Open when it begins on Monday 24 September.

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).