Hong Kong tennis chief welcomes lifting of travel restrictions, hopes government will scrap crowd limits
- Ten days out from city’s first top-ranked men’s tournament in 20 years, Philip Mok says scrapping amber code will be ‘very popular’ with players
- Mok wants government to remove maximum capacity of 85 per cent at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium after tickets ‘sold out in one day’
Hong Kong tennis chief Philip Mok has welcomed moves by the government to scrap its amber health code ahead of the city’s first top-ranked men’s tennis tournament in 20 years.
Speaking at the tournament draw for the Hong Kong International Tennis Challenge, which runs from December 23 to 25 at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium, Mok said the timing was ideal for the three-day event, which has attracted the likes of world No 9 Taylor Fritz, world No 10 Hubert Hurkacz, and US Open semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe.
“The timing is very good,” Mok said. “Getting rid of the amber code is going to be popular with players and their entourages. Now they can come and actually enjoy more of Hong Kong. I think they will be happy to hear this news.”
Mok said recent moves to support large-scale sporting events like the Hong Kong Marathon and the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens were “positive”, but hopes the government will now go one step further and ease caps on audience numbers.
“We have been very fortunate,” he said. “We did have some initial concerns about hosting the event in the middle of Christmas as a lot of people are travelling, but we have been quite surprised. Once we pushed tickets out to the public they sold out in one day.
“What we would like to hear from the government before our event starts is that they remove the maximum capacity of 85 per cent so we can push tickets out to those who weren’t able to get them before.”
The big draw for local fans will be Hong Kong ace and two-time junior grand slam winner Coleman Wong Chak-lam who takes on world No 14 Cameron Norrie in his first big test against a top-20 opponent.
Wong made history in January by following up his victory at the US Open 2021 boys’ double with a second grand slam title at the Australian Open, becoming the city’s first two-time grand slam winner.
“A lot of tennis fans want to watch Coleman live in action,” Mok said. “They’ve heard a lot about him, but he mostly competes overseas. This time he’ll be competing in Hong Kong against top players from around the world – I think that’s a great attraction.”
The two top-seeds Fritz and Hurkacz will receive byes into the semi-finals, while China’s Wu Yibing takes on Swiss gun Stan Wawrinka. Losers in both quarter-final and semi-final matches will battle it out for fifth and third place finishes, with the grand final taking place on December 25.
The HKTA also announced a partnership with the Hong Kong Jockey Club to host a free wheelchair tennis match on the opening day of the event. All matches will air on TVB’s J2 channel and stream on Facebook Live.
Mok said he hoped the success of the event will lead to more tournaments in 2023, including the return of the women’s WTA Hong Kong Open in October.
“At the same time we’re looking at opportunities for an ATP men’s tournament or more high-level exhibition events like this one,” he said.
“We’ve looked at the policy address from the government and sports, culture and tourism are the three elements they really want to combine together to promote Hong Kong as a destination and tennis being such a popular global sport, we can definitely play a role in that.”
