The Australian Open is increasing its investment in China, evolving from a tournament brand into a year-round lifestyle brand.

Title: Australian Open Increases Investment in Chinese Market

Australian Open Deepens its Strategy in China

The Chinese tennis market is shifting from a traffic-driven business based on stars and tournament schedules to a year-round operation supported by mass participation, daily consumption, and commercial partnerships.

The Australian Open, held annually in Melbourne in January, is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments and is the one closest to China in terms of time zone. It has long positioned itself as the "Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific region".

On September 28, the Australian Open held a press conference in China. In an exclusive interview with Wall Street Insights, Roddy Campbell, Director of Partnerships and International Business at Tennis Australia, summarized the Australian Open's long-term goal as "building a year-round cultural and lifestyle brand."

“We want fans to think about the Australian Open all year round, not just for three weeks in January,” Campbell said. “Our goal is to make the Australian Open a year-round brand experience, not just a tournament held in January.” This means that consumers can still watch content, participate in matches, buy products, and include a trip to Australia in their travel plans outside of the tournament season.

Generally speaking, audience share, social media followers, and the number of partners are important indicators for measuring market size. When discussing the Chinese market this time, Campbell also stated that he is also concerned about whether good content can translate into stable user relationships.

Almost simultaneously, the 2026 China Tennis Consumption Season, the first annual industry consumption season in China themed around a single sport, was launched, integrating events, e-commerce, venues, and training into a single consumption promotion mechanism.

For the Australian Open, the value of the Chinese market is no longer solely determined by viewership ratings. Chinese players bring attention, mass participation expands consumption, and international events and local brands attempt to transform this popularity into a longer business chain.

01 Tennis fever is entering everyday consumption

Celebrities remain the fastest way to generate buzz for tennis in China. Li Na's run to the Australian Open final in 2011 and her victory in 2014 brought Grand Slam tournaments to widespread recognition in China. Ten years later, Zheng Qinwen reached the Australian Open women's singles final in 2024 and won the women's singles gold medal at the Paris Olympics, once again bringing tennis into the public eye.

Player performance has a direct impact on viewership. The WTA revealed that in the first nine months of 2025, the cumulative streaming audience for international women's tennis events in China will increase more than 30 times; during the same period, the WTA China's official social media accounts will see a 14% increase in followers, short video platform followers will increase by more than 300%, and video views will increase by 71% year-on-year. Increased coverage is a key reason, and the WTA also attributes the growth to the performance of Chinese players on the international stage.

Whether the hype can translate into a long-term market depends on what happens outside the competition.

Data from the General Administration of Sport of China shows that in 2025, nine professional tennis tournaments in China attracted nearly one million spectators, generating 250 million yuan in box office revenue and over 1 billion yuan in cumulative revenue. This also stimulated related consumption in the catering, accommodation, and cultural tourism sectors, exceeding 16 billion yuan. Related consumption was approximately 64 times the box office revenue, indicating that the impact of these events on urban consumption primarily occurred outside the venues.

The China Tennis Consumption Season, launched this year, further connects professional tournaments with everyday consumption. Running from September to November, the event sets up consumption scenarios at multiple tournament venues and partners with Tmall to sell equipment and merchandise. Alipay is used to connect court bookings, sports points, and shopping, and venue operations and intelligent training systems are also included. Tennis consumption thus covers equipment, courts, training, spectating, and travel, and the consumption cycle is no longer limited to the period of professional tournaments.

Campbell remains optimistic about the star effect. He predicts that as the number and performance of Chinese players increase, Chinese audiences' interest in the games will also grow.

However, he immediately emphasized, "The key is not just Chinese players. We hope that no matter who is playing, Chinese fans can build a relationship with the Australian Open."

Therefore, the Australian Open continuously documents the training, interviews, behind-the-scenes lives, and interactions of all participating players, including Chinese players, before, during, and after the tournament, and then distributes this information to the Australian Open's official social media platforms. Chinese players are an accelerator of social media growth, and the Australian Open's challenge is to retain new viewers with more diverse content.

02 Extend the three-week event to the whole year

Grand Slam tournaments concentrate their attention and revenue highly during the tournament period. After the tournament ends, there is often a gap of several months between the event and overseas audiences. The Australian Open's approach in China is to maintain connection through content, and then distribute amateur matches, professional channels, and branded events throughout the year.

Campbell stated that the Australian Open currently has approximately 6.5 million followers on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu. The team gathers material intensively during the tournament and continues to share stories of players and fans afterward. Every autumn, the Australian Open also holds a launch event in China to promote the next tournament.

Offline projects serve different functions. The Guojiao 1573 Australian Open Amateur Challenge, in partnership with Luzhou Laojiao, is aimed at amateur players and is held in multiple cities. Australian Open data shows that since the partnership began in the 2019 season, this tournament has attracted nearly 10,000 amateur players, with winners having the opportunity to compete at Melbourne Park. This year, the Australian Open is bringing the AO 1 Point Slam to China for the first time, allowing more tennis enthusiasts to experience the Australian Open through a brand-new competition format.

The Asia-Pacific Wildcard Tournament, aimed at professional players, provides a pathway to Grand Slam tournaments for those who haven't yet secured direct main draw qualification. Campbell revealed that this year's wildcard tournament will be held in Chengdu in November. One aspect is expanding participation from the general public, while the other connects the Australian Open with the professional career paths of Asia-Pacific players.

The Australian Open has already proven the commercial value of its surrounding events in Melbourne. The three-week tournament in 2026 attracted 1.368 million visitors to Melbourne Park; the event generated AUD 722 million in related spending and provided 705,200 overnight stays in Melbourne. Music, food, retail, and tourism all contributed to extending the duration of on-site spending.

The Chinese market cannot simply replicate Melbourne Park's model; the Australian Open is simply copying its operational approach. Campbell said, "We want to bring the brand here and adapt it to the local culture." The Australian Open plans to incorporate music, food, and entertainment into its offline events in China, and also collaborate with creators outside the tennis world to reach a wider audience.

These projects cannot be sustained solely through tournament marketing. Social media content, amateur tournaments, wildcard tournaments, and co-branded retail all require continuous investment from local teams and partners. Meanwhile, the Australian Open's commercial performance in China is showing a gradual upward trend. After more than nine years of development, the Australian Open now has six partners in China.

This investment explains why the Australian Open has been able to break down a three-week event into a regular business. The local team's work has also expanded from localizing overseas content to content production, event management, and product development.

03 How Sports Sponsorship Can Facilitate Brands' Overseas Expansion

The expansion of tennis spending in China is also changing how brands purchase tournament rights. Campbell said that the global audience size is just the starting point for collaborations: "Whether a collaboration is successful depends on what you specifically do and how you implement it."

The Australian Open currently has over 30 partners. Campbell emphasized that each partner engages with fans differently, and the organizers collaborate with brands to develop products and events, rather than selling a single, identical sponsorship package.

Luckin Coffee is one example. In 2024, Luckin became the official coffee partner of the Australian Open in China and Southeast Asia. By partnering with local brands, the Australian Open is exploring more ways to connect with consumers, extending the tournament's influence from the court to everyday life.

Luzhou Laojiao's partnership is closer to long-term tournament assets. Since the 2019 season, the brand has partnered with the Australian Open, with related rights including "Winning Moments," Court 1573, the Australian Open Amateur Challenge, and the Asia-Pacific Wildcard Tournament. This allows the brand to appear simultaneously in Melbourne and local Chinese tournaments, extending user engagement from watching matches to participating in them.

Both collaborations demonstrate that sports sponsorship is shifting from logo exposure to product, channel, and user operations.

A report released by the General Administration of Sport of China shows that in 2025, China's total import and export volume of sports services reached 74.875 billion yuan, of which the import and export volume of event sponsorships was 4.852 billion yuan and the transaction volume of event copyrights was 6.524 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 77.38%. The report regards the overseas sponsorship by domestic enterprises and the deepening of international brands' presence in the Chinese market as important drivers of the growth of the sports economy.

For Chinese brands, the Australian Open offers global broadcasting, live events overseas, and travel retail opportunities; for the Australian Open, Chinese partners bring local stores, product development, and user channels. The sustainability of this partnership will ultimately be tested by sales of co-branded products, participation in events, and expansion into overseas markets, rather than simply by increased exposure.

This also explains why Campbell repeatedly used "building a lifestyle brand" to describe the Australian Open's goals.

Lifestyle is not about adding a layer of music, food, or merchandise to the event, but about letting content, courts, retail, and travel continue beyond the tournament itself. As Campbell said, the Australian Open wants to be "clearly seen as a year-round cultural and lifestyle brand that is highly relevant to its Chinese audience."

For the Australian Open, the real test is not how much attention it receives in January, but whether consumers will continue to watch its content, participate in its events, and purchase its products after the tournament ends.

When Chinese consumers no longer have to wait until January for the Australian Open to access its content, its Chinese business will truly break free from its dependence on tournament-time traffic, and its lifestyle brand will become more than just a positioning statement.

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