The Palma Arena (also known in Spanish as ''Velodrome Palma'') is a multisport pavilion of the city of Palma. Its construction involved major cost overruns, and massive corruption. Its main function is hosting indoor

track cycling Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

races on a banked track, and it is one of the best equipped in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

for this purpose. It was constructed under the auspices of Dutch architectural firm Sander Douma which specializes in indoor cycling venues, and was inaugurated in 2007 when it hosted the 2007 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. It has a capacity of 6,607 spectators.Palma Arena
On May 2, 2007 it staged the '

Battle of Surfaces The Battle of Surfaces was a men's tennis exhibition match that was held on May 2, 2007, between Roger Federer, the then top-ranked men's singles player, and Rafael Nadal, the then world No. 2 in men's singles. The match was played in the capital ...

' tennis match which saw Mallorca local and World No. 2

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

take on World No. 1

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...

. This match was unique because one side of the court was clay - Nadal's speciality - and the other side was grass - Federer's speciality. The result was a push for Federer as he won equal points on both surfaces, but Nadal used the clay to his advantage in victory capturing 12 more points than he did on grass.

References

Velodromes in Spain Indoor arenas in Spain Sport in Mallorca Buildings and structures in Palma de Mallorca Sports venues in the Balearic Islands 2007 establishments in Spain Sports venues completed in 2007 Tennis venues in Spain {{cycling-venue-stub

See also

References