Gathered in Shanghai, China, the world’s elite male tennis players took part in the Rolex Shanghai Masters last month, the penultimate round of ATP Tour Masters 1000 for the year. Being the third highest tier of annual men’s tennis tournament after the 4 Grand Slams and the ATP Finals, the ATP Tour Masters 1000 is composed by 9 tournaments in total, with the Rolex Shanghai Master as the only world-class tournament that is hosted in Asia, having been established in 2009.

Hosting the tournament for the 11^th time, Rolex is the Official Timekeeper and Title Sponsor for the 8-day championship, taking place from 6^th to the 13th October this year, at the Qizhong Stadium in Shanghai. Over the past fifteen years, Rolex has developed strong ties with tennis development in China, not only as the official time keeper for the Shanghai Master, but also the China Open since 2005, and the upcoming inaugural Shiseido WTA Finals in Shenzhen, providing opportunities for Chinese tennis enthusiast to view world class competition in their home country.

Throughout the history of Rolex, the company has supported human adventures, both those in natural environments and the sporting field, results in continued technical improvement. When watches were regarded as fragile at the beginning of 20th century, Hans Wilsdorf, founder of Rolex, was determined to create robust, precise and reliable pieces for active lifestyles, on land, in the air or depths of ocean. The Rolex Oyster was born for the purpose and so the destiny of Rolex has been connected to numerous record-breaking moments, from the summit of mount Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Holding the value of supporting human achievements through sports, in 1978, Rolex became the official sponsor and timekeeper for Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament in the world. Since then, Rolex has officially encompassed prestigious tournaments such as the found Grand Slams, and many other tennis event, for over forty years.  Besides supporting the major events, Rolex has also endorsed numerous world class tennis testimonees, including Kyle Edmund, Taylor Fritz, Karen Khachanov, Lucas Pouille, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and last but not least the returning legendary champion, Roger Federer.

Holding a record for 20 Grand Slam singles titles, and two times winner at the Rolex Grand Masters, Federer is the living legend. Joining the competition in Shanghai for the 8th time in his career, Federer was unfortunately be knocked out in the quarterfinals by Alexander Zverev, who would eventually go on to the finals, finishing runner up to Daniil Medvedev. Amazingly this year both finalists were under 24, showing that the experiences that comes with age isn’t a requirement, and Medvedev was clearly the dominate player for the tournament, not dropping a set all week and winning the final in 73 minutes, 6-4, 6-1.

It was a huge pleasure to see so many greats players competing in Shanghai, across all the stages of their and we look forward to following the 2020 Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Gathered in Shanghai, China, the world’s elite male tennis players took part in the Rolex Shanghai Masters last month, the penultimate round of ATP Tour Masters 1000 for the year. Being the third highest tier of annual men’s tennis tournament after the 4 Grand Slams and the ATP Finals, the ATP Tour Masters 1000 is composed by 9 tournaments in total, with the Rolex Shanghai Master as the only world-class tournament that is hosted in Asia, having been established in 2009.