Chinese social media played a massive role in promoting this year’s Roland Garros tournament, with 10 players posting around the tournament, as well as the official Roland Garros account. Although Novak missed out on the chance to complete the set of all four major titles, he maintained his class in defeat on all stages, including Chinese social media:
Novak is the #1 tennis player online in China with over 4.5 million social fans who expressed their admiration and respect for the player following his post. Humility has deep roots in Chinese culture, with Confucius speaking about the need to be humble, which backs up the overwhelming response to his post. The post now has over 17,000 fan interactions. The scale of his popularity is particularly evident when compared to Serena Williams’ championship celebration post that reached less than 600 total engagement.
Of course success is important for Chinese fans; without an official social media presence in China, Wawrinka will have missed the opportunity to make the most of his victory in this market. It will therefore be Novak whose name and brand benefits most from this final. Chinese fans love inspirational or emotional stories: Novak beating his long-standing rival Nadal in the quarterfinals, his friend Murray in the semifinals but missed out on the perfect finish in a tense final.
Andy Murray also sent a message to his Chinese fans on his own official Weibo page with over 1,000 fan responses.
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