The Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open (known as the ''

Kingfisher Airlines Kingfisher Airlines Limited was an airline group based in India. It was established in 2003 and started its commercial operations in 2005. Through its parent company United Breweries Group, it had a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red. ...

Tennis Open'' for sponsorship reasons) was a professional men's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament played on outdoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface and ...

s. It was part of the International Series of the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

. It was held annually in Asia.

History

The tournament was first created in 1996 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, on indoor carpet courts and as part of the

ATP World Series The ATP International Series (known from 1990 to 1997 as the ATP World Series) was a series of professional tennis tournaments held internationally as part of the ATP Tour from 2000 to 2008. The series was renamed ATP Tour 250 in 2009. Interna ...

. The second new tournament started by the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...

(ATP) in Asia in three years, after the

Beijing Open The Pine Valley Beijing Open was a men's professional golf tournament, played in 2007 and 2008. It was held at Pine Valley Golf Club in Beijing, China. Originally an event on the Asian Tour, and co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour in 2008, it be ...

, created in 1993, the Shanghai event ran as a men's only tournament during four years, seeing the likes of

Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total o ...

Goran Ivanišević Goran Ivanišević (; born 13 September 1971) is a Croatian former professional tennis player and current coach. He is the only player to win a The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon singles title as a Wild card (sports)#Professional tennis, w ...

Marcelo Ríos Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (; born 26 December 1975) is a Chilean former world No. 1 tennis player. Nicknamed ''"El Chino"'' ("The Chinese") and ''"El zurdo de Vitacura"'' ("The Lefty from Vitacura"), he became the first Latin American play ...

and

Magnus Norman Magnus Norman (born 30 May 1976) is a Swedish tennis coach and retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 2 singles ranking on June 12, 2000. His career highlights include re ...

reaching the finals. In 2000, the Tier IV

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...

(WTA) tournaments of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

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 The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...

to Shanghai in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, 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

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Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. After the 2005 edition, the tournament moved once more to a new country, in India, taking place in the city of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

first, in 2006 and 2007, and then moving again to

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

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.

Past finals

Singles

Doubles

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{ATP World Series tournaments ATP Tour Hard court tennis tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 1996 Recurring events disestablished in 2007 Tennis tournaments in India Defunct tennis tournaments in Asia Defunct sports competitions in India