The ATP Zhuhai championships, offering 1,000,000 US dollars in total prize money, was held for the first time last week, and Australian Alex de Minaur beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6, 6-4 to claim the tournament's maiden title last Sunday. 

For a special episode of Beyond the Baseline, CGTN Sports Scene spoke to the co-director of ATP Zhuhai Championships, Peter Lyu, who told us more about the inaugural edition of this event in Guangdong province. 

"We already had some successful experiences on the WTA side in the past four years, and we decided to hold an ATP level event two years ago. Men's tennis is more powerful, aggressive, and faster, which would bring a different feeling to the crowd," Lyu told CGTN. 

As an ATP 250 level event, the inaugural tournament attracted a distinguished field which included former World No. 1 Andy Murray, Top 10 star Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, and Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut, who all began their Asian swing in Zhuhai. 

Lyu informed: "We made the plan to invite players to come to Zhuhai before this year's Australian Open. We invited several different levels of players such as famous stars, top 10 or 20 players, also talented rising stars."

Due to their low rankings, Chinese men formerly had limited access to higher-caliber ATP tournaments. However, with more and more home tournaments on home soil, they now have more chances to face higher-ranked opponents. Wild-card entry Wu Di and Zhang Zhizhen offered fresh hope when they reached the second round in Zhuhai. 

"We now have more and more tournaments in China. So we absolutely want to give low-ranked players and some teenager players more chances to play the high-level tournaments, to face the greatest players in the world, and try to win more points to improve their ranking," tournament's co-director mentioned. 

Meanwhile, Alison Lee, ATP International Executive Vice President said: "If you look at Zhang Zhizhen winning Jinan and beating all those players day-in, day-out, coming, taking the confidence, coming here, and winning his first match. So, yeah, I'm very excited to watch his career progress." 

The tournament is flourishing with strong support from the local government and local promoter Huafa Group, and it will hold the fifth edition of WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai between October 22 and 27.