Sun Tiantian Wins Australian Open TCL Awards Special Prize

Sun Tiantian Wins Australian Open TCL Awards Special Prize

January 29th,2008

On January 28th, the Australian Open mixed doubles champion Sun Tiantian arrived back in Beijing. Despite arriving in the middle of the night Beijing time, she still received a warm welcome from leaders of the General Administration of Sport's Tennis Activities Management Center (TAMC) and tennis fans from TCL's Australian Open Supporters Group.

Vice-president of the TAMC Gao Shenyang, Sun Tiantian's coach Zhang Qi and the relevant leaders of the TAMC went to the airport to greet Sun Tiantian. Others attending the welcome celebrations at the airport included fans from TCL's Australian Open Supporters Group and a group of disabled elementary school student fans from Western Beijing's Peizhi Center School.

When mixed doubles champion Sun Tiantian walked out of the arrivals hall, she was met with a sea of flowers and riotous applause. Coach Zhang Qi was the first person to hand a bouquet to her student. Sun Tiantian also received congratulations and more bouquets of flowers from enthusiastic fans, and took photographs with the disabled elementary school students to commemorate the occasion.

The Australian Open Supporters Group that welcomed Sun Tiantian at the airport was organized by TCL, the premier sponsor of Chinese Women's Tennis. Along with the Australian Open's Gold Cup, Sun Tiantian also received a special prize from TCL. In April 2007, TCL established a dedicated prize fund to support the Chinese Women's Tennis team.

More specifically, the prize includes a bonus of RMB00,000 for each first place won in the four main Grand Slams in the future; any gold medals won during the Olympic Games will also be rewarded with a prize of 500,000. Sun Tiantian is the first lucky winner of one of these prizes. Special Vice-president of the Chinese Tennis Association, TCL Corporation President Li Dongsheng, will greet China's women's tennis team in the near future, at which time he will personally present Sun Tiantian with her prize.

When asked to described her feelings on winning the prize, Tiantian wittily replied that she hoped to give TCL reason to issue even more prizes in the future.

According to TCL's marketing team, TCL Corporation's collaboration with the Chinese Women's Tennis Team, which began last February, is the largest sports sponsorship project with which TCL has been involved. As the premier sponsor of the Chinese Women's Tennis Team, TCL Corporation arranged for the Supporters Group to travel to the Australian Open to support the Chinese Women's Tennis Team.

TCL also supported the Chinese Women's Tennis Team during the match against France in the Fed Cup, shortly before the Australian Open began, helping to create a "Home team"atmosphere for the Chinese team.

Additional information:

TCL Corporation and the Chinese Women's Tennis Team

Tennis activities are developing in China at lighting speed, and the Chinese Women's Tennis Team is a success story that is spurring on the rapid growth of China's population of tennis players and fans. On February 8th, 2007, TCL was fortunate to become the premier sponsor of the Chinese Women's Tennis Team. Over the next three years, players such as Zheng Jie, Yan Zi and Li Na will go into battle displaying the TCL logo, including matches during the four Grand Slams and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This is also a prelude to TCL Corporation's Olympic marketing strategy.

As emerging Chinese giants on the world stage in their respective fields, TCL Corporation and the Chinese Women's Tennis Team share a sense of national pride and social responsibility, as well as a pioneering spirit, and these shared aspirations are the cornerstone of their collaboration and mutual support.

The Chinese Women's Tennis Team's fearless spirit and determination to succeed is an embodiment of TCL's core values; the focus, progressiveness, innovation and stylishness of tennis are also in perfect agreement with TCL Corporation's perspective on the future development trends of the consumer electronics industry, as well as being a perfect match for the TCL brand as an industry leader.

TCL Corporation greatly values its collaboration with the Chinese Women's Tennis team, and has invested more than RMB100 million in related activities, in anticipation that its strong support will enable the youthful Chinese Women's Tennis Team to benefit from increased technical assistance and motivation, and thereby to achieve breakthrough results in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Moreover, this project will also help to promote the popularity of tennis and the raising of standards within China, encouraging more and more people to get involved in tennis activities, and to enjoy a healthy and stylish lifestyle.

TCL Corporation and sports sponsorship

TCL Corporation has a long history of involvement in sports sponsorship. TCL began to collaborate with Chinese Women's Volleyball in 1996, when the sport was at something of a low point, establishing the TCL Lang Ping Volleyball Fund; in 1998, TCL went on to provide more direct sponsorship of the Chinese Volleyball Association.

Since 2002, TCL Corporation has been involved in golf, sponsoring four successive European Tours. As the world becomes increasingly globalized, TCL Corporation's sports sponsorship has expanded to other regions of the world. TCL has sponsored local horse racing, baseball and rugby matches in Australia; in Thailand, TCL sponsored Go tournaments and the broadcasting of 2006 Men's Football World Cup matches; and in India, TCL has become a leading sponsor of cricket matches.

TCL Corporation's sponsorship of the Chinese Women's Tennis Team is the company's largest current sponsorship program.

TCL Corporation hopes that by supporting sporting activities, the company can promote a healthy and stylish lifestyle.