The second official press conference of 2008 China Open was held in Kerry Center Hotel, Beijing, on the afternoon of 18th June, 2008.
As survivors of 5/12 Wenchuan Earthquake, two special representatives from Hongbai Primary School(which lies in Shifang city, Sichuan Province)came to the press conference to tell their stories. They signed an agreement of directional donations with China Open, Ticketmaster and Beijing Youth Development Foundation during the conference, the action of which declared the establishment of “China Open Loving Heart Funds”. According to this plan, as long as one ticket of China Open is sold, 10 yuan out of its revenue will go directly into the fund, which will be put into use in the reconstruction work of Hongbai Primary School and the construction of sports facilities there.
Before this, China Open moved quickly to organize sales work in Wuhan, Guangzhou and other cities in its nationwide promotion actions--- “Share Tennis with China” after the earthquake, and nearly 10,000 Yuan fundraised from the sales were sent to local charity. Again, China Open promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the school in the long term and to provide sports facilities in time, especially tennis facilities.
Lists of the latest batch of players which will attend China Open in 2008 were released during the conference as well. According to the lists, more than half of top ten female players will have their parts in China Open this year, and most of them will come to China for the first time. Besides Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankvoic and Agnes Szavay, another batch of famous players from Russia will come to crusade for China Open. Among these players, Dinara Safina (the runner-up of France Open in 2008), Kuznetsova(the former champion of American Open) and Anna Chakvetadze will surely come to China Open this September. Moreover, Daniela Hantuchova, the beauty from Slovakia will come to Beijing for the first time to participate in this competition. Concerning the male players, Richard Gasquet from France and Tommy Robredo from Spain will be added to the list as well as Andy Roddick and David Ferrer.
In addition, nine platinum sponsors for 2008 China Open show up together for the first time during the conference. They are CCTV-5, Panasonic, Tsingtao, Mercedes-Benz, Sony-Ericsson, Kappa, Canon, Rolex and China CITIC Bank. It was with their devoted support that commercial sponsor revenues of China Open were increased by 20% in 2008, the Olympic Year.
