Olympic Tennis Centre (Rio de Janeiro)


The Olympic Tennis Centre is a tennis venue located in the Barra Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The centre hosted tennis events of the 2016 Summer Olympics, and the wheelchair tennis events of the 2016 Summer Paralympics. The centre was built on the site of the former Nelson Piquet International Autodrome.

History

Construction

The centre was designed by architect Gerkan, Marg and Partners, along with Schlaich Bergermann Partner.
The centre consists of a tennis stadium and 15 ancillary courts. The center court has a capacity of 10,000, with the two temporary arenas with a capacity of 5,000 and 3,000 respectively. The surface will be hard court, supplied by GreenSet.
Construction started in 2013 and was completed in 2016. However, the stadium faced numerous hurdles during construction. The biggest of these was when the city of Rio de Janeiro canceled the construction contract 200 days before the start of the games and finned the consortium responsible for delays 11 million reais.

Opening

In December 2015, the centre court was named after Maria Esther Bueno, a former Brazilian tennis player, who became the first woman ever to win all four Grand Slam doubles titles in one year. This also marked the first ever event to be held at the Barra Olympic Park, which saw 75 Brazilian tennis players take part in a competition.