The Olympic Tennis Centre ( pt, Centro Olímpico de Tênis) is a tennis venue located in the

Barra Olympic Park The Barra Olympic Park (Brazilian Portuguese: ''Parque Olímpico da Barra''), originally the City of Sports Complex, is a cluster of nine sporting venues in Barra da Tijuca, in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The park, which served as th ...

Barra da Tijuca Barra da Tijuca () (usually known as Barra) is an upper-class neighborhood or bairro in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, located in the western portion of the city on the Atlantic Ocean. Barra is well known for its beaches, its many lake ...

in the West Zone of

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. The centre hosted

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

events of the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

, and the wheelchair tennis events of the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...

. The centre was built on the site of the former Nelson Piquet International Autodrome.

History

Construction

Olympic Tennis Center-Centro Olímpico da Barra

The centre was designed by architect

Gerkan, Marg and Partners Gerkan, Marg & Partners (gmp) is an international architectural company based in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Meinhard von Gerkan and , and now has more than 300 employees in 13 offices. In the same year the archit ...

, 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. Centro Olímpico de Tênis- Barra

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 ($2.7 million).

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

, which saw 75 Brazilian tennis players take part in a competition.

Legacy

In July 2021, it was announced that the centre would be auctioned to the private initiative. However, as of February 2022, it is still managed by the federal government, through the Ministry of Citizenship. The

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there ...

(ITF) has confirmed that, 20 years after the last

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

match played in Rio de Janeiro, the Olympics Tennis Centre is set to host

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

's match against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

in the

2022 Davis Cup qualifying round The 2022 Davis Cup qualifying round was held on 4–5 March 2022. The twelve winners of this round qualify for the 2022 Davis Cup Finals while the twelve losers will qualify for the 2022 Davis Cup World Group I. Teams Twenty-four teams played fo ...

. It also played host to the Rio Tennis Classic ATP Challenger Tour event in December 2021.

References

External links