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Scalpers do roaring trade in cut-price tennis final tickets

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Scalpers can be found at sporting and entertainment events around the world, but those outside the China Open tennis final in Beijing yesterday were offering a service with a difference.

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Hordes of shady characters in three-piece suits were massed outside the China Tennis Centre, pouncing on pedestrians, cyclists and any car that slowed to a cruising speed.

In the west, scalpers sell their tickets at a hefty mark-up, but perhaps only in China could a ticket valued at more than 60 yuan be snapped up for a mere 10 yuan.

The tickets were not even fakes - they had been issued for sponsorship deals or giveaways and found their way into scalpers' hands.

But Jonathan Krane, president of Emma Entertainment, which has exclusive ticketing rights on the China Open for the next five years, was not complaining as the company's main concern - fake tickets - had not materialised.

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Speaking two days ago, Mr Krane said: 'Sure, counterfeiting is a huge problem, but thus far we have had zero counterfeits.'

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