The o2 stadium, formerly the North Greenwich Arena nicknamed the "Millennium Dome", is located on the Greenwich Peninsula on the banks of the Thames River in northeast London.
It is one of the earliest buildings in a series of millennium buildings built by countries around the world to welcome the arrival of the 21st century, and has successfully attracted global attention.
The entire project was originally considered to be temporary. Later, after investigation and research, it was found that this project has great value for both the revitalization of the surrounding urban area and the long-term investment in building transportation infrastructure. Therefore, The temporary project evolved into a formal project.
On December 31, 1999, the building was officially unveiled and put into use. Because of its unique shape and grandeur, it attracted widespread attention and was listed as one of the most important buildings in the 1990s by many professional architectural magazines. It also earned the title of "Pearl of London".
In 2007, the venue was officially opened to the public on a daily basis, bidding farewell to the monumental "Millennium Dome" name, and was more commonly referred to as the O2 Stadium.
The O2 Stadium has always been a popular venue for various sports events and concerts. In 2012, in order to welcome the Olympic Games, the stadium was renovated and a batch of new equipment was updated and replaced. This also makes the venue even more popular all year round. There are countless activities held.
Exactly five years ago in 2009, the ATP moved its year-end finals to London. The O2 Arena has been the venue since then and continues to this day.
After Paris, London has become another city hosting two top ATP events:
One is Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam.
The second is the year-end finals, the annual Huashan sword debate.
For men's professional tennis players, the two cities of London and Paris have become particularly special.
Whether you admit it or not, London has always been a football city. The bars, streets, schools, and buses are all filled with the atmosphere of football. It is deeply imprinted in the blood of the city. Every weekend, it will be boiling because of football. People have poured a lot of enthusiasm into it.
In front of football, tennis is naturally less popular.
It is precisely because of this that when the ATP Year-End Finals first came to London, the attendance rate did not meet expectations, which was undoubtedly disappointing.
However, after five years of in-depth market promotion and hard work, the popularity of the year-end finals has been rising steadily, and this year ushered in an unprecedented blowout——
Attendance rate breaks the previous record for the year-end finals!
Moreover, in addition to the spectators who bought tickets, the endless flow of enthusiastic people at the O2 Arena every day also burst out with incredible energy.
Every day, there is always a long queue at the door of the training ground. Although they know that there are only a hundred free admission to watch the training, the waiting team still has no end in sight, and can even separate the training ground from the training ground. The fields are connected like a domino solitaire.
The number of fans waiting in the hotel lobby also reached a new high.
Every time, ATP officially organizes fan interaction activities, inviting two finals players to come and interact with fans face to face, it is expected that the number of registrations will be overwhelming; but they still come to the scene despite not being able to obtain admission. The number of fans watching is impressive.
From the moment you step out of the subway station, you can deeply feel the enthusiasm filling the air.
Media reporters from all over the world who arrived in London to cover the year-end finals all lamented that the atmosphere at the O2 Arena this year was really hot, comparable to a carnival. Even experienced reporters repeatedly exclaimed,
"Never experienced that before."
Literally, blowing up the entire market.
In just two game days, the "Times" could not wait to announce:
"This is the most successful year-end finals in history."
In fact, as the host, The Times was naturally full of praise; moreover, they have always had the habit of bluffing and exaggerating, such as "the strongest in history", "the most outstanding in ten years", "the most successful in thirty years" The keyword "" is not uncommon, especially in the years when the World Cup is held.
But this time, the Times is not the only media to think so. Similar views have been unanimously recognized by many different media on five continents.
Judging from the market enthusiasm, this year's year-end finals are indeed making history, expanding their influence step by step, and trying their best to catch up with the Grand Slams.
Success, no doubt about it.
However, life is never that simple, and the judgment of whether something is good or bad is not so rough. Reality is often much more complicated.
In stark contrast to the fiery atmosphere, the group stage was dull and one-sided, and could not be called exciting at all.
Unable to hide embarrassment.
In the final analysis, competitive sports are still looking forward to exciting, bayonet-spotting duels. A hearty victory is certainly a joy, but the ups and downs and suspenseful close battles can really make people excited and vividly interpret "higher and faster." The meaning of "further".
Why was this year's year-end finals able to set a record high? Why can it trigger such a frenzy? Why can it detonate such an atmosphere?
fresh blood!
Kei Nishikori, who represents the face of Asia, and Raonic, who represents the new generation, join hands for the first time on the O2 Arena stage.
The four Grand Slams belong to four players respectively; in addition, Wawrinka, Tsonga and Gauvin also reached the Masters respectively.
Coupled with the topic of "the collapse of the era of the Big Four" that started at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year and lasted until the end of the year, it reached a climax step by step; the competition for the year-end finals seats lasted until the semi-finals of the Paris Masters, advancing hand in hand and fighting hand to hand. Confrontations come one after another.
All aspects prove one thing:
Perhaps, the year-end finals may fall into a melee.
In fact, the year-end finals have been quiet for a long time. The last time there was an "accident" was when it came to the O2 Arena for the first time in 2009.
That year, Davydenko and del Potro unexpectedly reached the final, and Davydenko won the championship.
In the next four years, Federer won two consecutive championships and Djokovic won two consecutive championships. It was very, very difficult for other players to even reach the finals. Only Tsonga reached the final once in 2011, and the other three games The runner-up players in the final were Nadal, Federer, and Nadal.
...nothing new.
It's not that people don't like the Big Four - on the contrary, the Big Four fan base is undoubtedly the largest; but that people expect surprises and changes.
It is precisely because of this that after experiencing such a magical and crazy year, people have reason to expect more from the year-end finals:
Not to mention the lineup of the semi-finals or the finals, at least the showdown in the group stage should be more exciting, right?
Look, last week in Paris, Gauvin upset Djokovic, Raonic upset Federer, and Anderson upset Wawrinka. The top three seeds all lost, so when they get to London, wouldn’t they? Should it be more intense and closer?
However, the reality is——
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