The Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open (known as the Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open for sponsorship reasons) was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was part of the International Series of the ATP Tour. It was held annually in Bangalore, India.
The tournament was first created in 1996 in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, on indoor carpet courts and as part of the ATP World Series. The second new tournament started by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in Asia in three years, after the Beijing Open, created in 1993, the Shanghai event ran as a men's only tournament during four years, seeing the likes of Michael Chang, Goran Ivanišević, Marcelo Ríos and Magnus Norman reaching the finals. In 2000, the Tier IV Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments of Beijing was moved to Shanghai, allowing the city to hold both the ATP event, now part of the International Series, and the WTA event.
In 2004, as the ATP was increasing its presence in Asia, having brought the Tennis Masters Cup to Shanghai in 2002, working on moving several events to different new locations, the ATP and WTA Shanghai tournaments were both relocated, with the women's, now a Tier II tournament, returning to Beijing, and the men's moving to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.. After the 2005 edition, the tournament moved once more to a new country, in India, taking place in the city of Mumbai first, in 2006 and 2007, and then moving again to Bangalore for the 2008 edition. The first event to be held in the new location, though, was cancelled due to security fears, and the first Bangalore Open consequently postponed to the next season. In 2009 a new tournament in Asia was created to replace it, the Malaysian Open, located on Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Shanghai is the largest city by population of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the largest city proper by population in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities of the PRC, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010. It is a global city, with influence in commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, and transport. It is a major financial center and the busiest container port in the world.
Located in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, Shanghai sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the middle portion of the Chinese coast. The municipality borders Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces to the west, and is bounded to the east by the East China Sea.
Once a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to European recognition of its favorable port location and economic potential. The city was one of several opened to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the first opium war and the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking which allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became the undisputed financial hub of the Asia Pacific in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, the city's international influence declined. In the 1990s, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city.
Kei Nishikori (錦織 圭, Nishikori Kei?) (born 29 December 1989 in Matsue, Shimane, Japan) is a Japanese tennis player, currently ranked World No. 17 as of April 2, 2012. He began playing tennis at the age of five and qualified for his first ATP main draw event at the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, California at the age of 17.[citation needed]
Nishikori won the 2004 title at the Riad 21 Tournament in Rabat, Morocco and was a quarterfinalist at the 2006 Junior French Open. He partnered with Emiliano Massa to win the 2006 Junior French Open. Nishikori won the 2007 Luxilon Cup held at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open by defeating Michael McClune.
Nishikori qualified and won the title at the ITF Futures event in Mazatlán, Mexico. He began the year by receiving a wildcard to the Kyoto Challenger in Kyoto, Japan.
A finalist in two USTA Pro Circuit events, Nishikori lost to Donald Young in Little Rock, Arkansas and Alex Bogomolov, Jr. in Carson, California. He partnered with Donald Young to win the doubles title at Little Rock. He paired with triple-French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, where they lost in the first round. Nishikori served as a hitting partner for Roger Federer at Wimbledon.
Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgarian: Григор Димитров; born May 16, 1991, in Haskovo) is a tennis player from Bulgaria. He achieved a career high ranking of World No. 52 on August 22, 2011. Dimitrov also enjoyed a very successful junior career, in which he held the World No. 1 ranking and won the boy's singles titles at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships and the 2008 US Open.
Grigor was born in Haskovo, Bulgaria as the only child of father Dimitar, a tennis coach and mother Maria, a sports teacher and former volleyball player. He first held a tennis racket, given to him by his mother at the age of three and when he was five he began to play daily. During his teenage years he lived in Paris, France while training at Patrick Mouratoglou's Tennis Academy. He speaks fluent Bulgarian and English and says his main interests are all sports, cars, computers and watches.
His first major junior coup was when, at aged 14 he claimed the U14 European title. In 2006 he won the Orange Bowl U16 boys singles and was later named the Eddie Herr International 2007 Rising Star.
Roger Federer (German pronunciation: [ˈfeːdəʁɐ]) (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP No. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks from 2 February 2004 to 18 August 2008. Federer has occupied the #1 ranking for 285 overall weeks, one week short of the record 286 weeks held by Pete Sampras. As of 28 May 2012, he is ranked World No. 3. Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass, and hard courts). He is the only male player in tennis history to have reached the title match of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times and also the final at each of the nine ATP Masters 1000 Tournaments. Many sports analysts, tennis critics, and former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.
Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 23 career Grand Slam tournament finals, including a men's record ten in a row, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, the lone exception being the 2008 Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semifinals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2012 Australian Open, he reached a record 31st consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. During the course of his run at the 2012 French Open in Roland Garros, Federer eclipsed Jimmy Connors long standing record of 233 match wins in Grand Slam tournaments when he defeated Adrian Ungur in a second round match.