Ad of the Day | Mountennis - a new Sport has been Invented to Promote the ATP 250 Series Tournament

Feb. 21, 2025

For the first time, the ATP 250 Series tennis tournament was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan - a historical event few believed would ever make its way to the city, where tennis has never been the most popular sport. 

The mobile operator Beeline Kazakhstan historically supports the development of tennis in the country and is a sponsor of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation. And, as a proud sponsor of the Almaty Open ATP250, was encouraged to promote the tournament among the city’s residents. This task was assigned to the advertising agency GForce Grey Kazakhstan.

Almaty is surrounded by mountains and is literally built on a slope. This defining feature shapes the sloped city’s life, culture, and folklore. Locals take great pride in it, and whenever brands embrace this unique aspect, they value it.

Yuliya Tushina, CEO at GForce Grey stated:

"To draw the attention of the city's residents to this historic event, shift social indifference, get people talking about it and as the main goal - encourage them to attend the tournament, it was decided that the city should set the rules of the game!"

 

Beeline Kazakhstan and ATP 250 introduced a brand new sport - tennis in Almaty-style, and called it Mountennis. The world’s first-ever sloping tennis court on a mountainside! A unique professional sloping court has been built in Almaty mountains, a court that fully reflects the entire culture of the city, located in the mountains on a slope. 

 

Yevgeniy Kostylev, ECD at GForce Grey said:

"We announced the unusual 2-day tennis tournament in Almaty-style, dedicated to Almaty Open and presented by Beeline Kazakhstan. In this tournament, the court, like the city of Almaty itself, has been sloped and placed on a mountainside.Then, we held the amateur tournament on October 5th and 6th, 2024, with a live broadcast online being possible by the wide coverage of the mobile Internet provided by Beeline Kazakhstan. This unusual tournament served as the perfect prelude to Almaty Open ATP 250 a week before the start."

 

Mountennis attracted significant media attention, with reports about the unusual tournament featured on TV news. Bloggers and social media pages also covered the event extensively. Mountennis became the trigger for mass media to talk about the upcoming Almaty Open tennis tournament and hot topic for Almaty city residents.

Reach - 1.2 million in a city of just 2 million, more than half of Almaty engaged with the tournament The Almaty Open ATP 250 tennis tournament attracted phenomenal interest from spectators, attended by 40,000 people (vs. 5000 attendees at Jared Leto’s live concert took place in the city the same week).

This is an impressive result for the absolutely new sport event in a city where tennis has never been the most popular sport. Especially when compared to the ATP 500 Astana Open, which, despite its higher status, drew only 38,000 spectators.