National Tennis Center, Beijing

National Tennis Center, Beijing

Full name The centre court of the Olympic Green Tennis Center
Location Beijing, China
Owner Beijing Shiao Forest Park Development & Management Limited
Operator Beijing Shiao Forest Park Development & Management Limited
Capacity 32 400 seats
(12 Match Courts & 6 Practice Courts)
15,000
(National Tennis Stadium / Diamond Court)
10,000[1]
(Lotus Court / Center Court)
4,000
(Moon Court / Court 1)
2,000
(Brad Drewett Court/ Court 2)
200
(Court 2-8/ Court 3-9)
(Previous courts name are currently used)
Surface Hard, outdoors
Construction
Broke ground 2003
Opened 2007
Expanded 2011
Construction cost USD ? million
Tenants
Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics (2008)
China Open (2009-)

Coordinates: 40°01′08.88″N 116°22′24.44″E / 40.0191333°N 116.3734556°E / 40.0191333; 116.3734556 The National Tennis Center (simplified Chinese: 国家网球中心; traditional Chinese: 國家網球中心; pinyin: Guójiā Wǎngqiú Zhōngxīn),[2] is a tennis centre located in the Olympic Green. It opened on 1 October 2007. It hosted the tennis preliminaries and finals of singles and doubles for men and women at the Beijing 2008 Olympics as well as the Paralympic wheelchair tennis competitions.

General information

The Center is located in Beijing, just 1.7 mi (2.7 km) from the Beijing National Stadium (a.k.a. The Birds Nest Stadium).

The tennis centre covers an area of 41.22 acres (166,800 m2) with a floor space of 285,394 sq ft (26,514.0 m2). The centre currently has 12 competition hard courts and 35 training courts, including 20 hard courts, 10 indoor hard courts, 2 artificial grass courts, 2 indoor clay courts, and a mini hard court.

The main court, named Diamond Court, has a capacity of 15,000.[3] The Lotus court, Moon court, and Brad Drewett Court, each represent a lotus flower, one of the emblems of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Each have 12 stands, each one representing a petal of the lotus flower. Center court has a capacity of 10,000, Court one 4,000 and Court two 2,000. The courts have been specially designed for natural air ventilation to reduce the amount of air pollution entering the courts, ensuring optimal health for both athletes and spectators. It also allows the courts to be cooled and with an installation of cooling machines, the courts' temperatures can easily be reduced to five degrees Celsius. Curtains attached to the roofs of the courts also allows them to be cooled in the heat of the sun.

The project embodies the concepts of Green Olympics, Hi-Tech Olympics, and People's Olympics. It integrates design experience of world sport architecture and will be a tennis competition venue of the state of the art design in keeping with international standards.

In 2009 the China Open, which is an ATP World Tour 500 series event and a WTA Premiere Mandatory tournament, moved its location to this center from its former location, the Beijing Tennis Center.

Rename

The National Tennis Center was named as The Olympic Green Tennis Center or Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Court (simplified Chinese: 北京奥林匹克公园网球中心; traditional Chinese: 北京奧林匹克公園網球中心; pinyin: Běijīng Àolínpǐkè Gōngyuán Wǎngqiúzhōngxīn),[4] at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Since it started to host the China Open, the venue was renamed to National Tennis Center in 2009.

Timeline

Before The Olympics

The courts were opened on 1 October 2007 and were tested between 6 and 20 October 2007 in the Good Luck Beijing 2007 ITF Pro Circuit, where 36 men and 44 women competed.

During The Olympics

Olympic Green Tennis Center during the 2008 Summer Olympics

The Courts hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The following competitions were played:
- men's singles – 64-player draw
- women's singles – 64-player draw
- men's doubles – 32-player draw
- women's doubles – 32-player draw

The winners

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's singles
Rafael Nadal
 Spain
Fernando González
 Chile
Novak Djokovic
 Serbia
Men's doubles
 Switzerland (SUI)
Roger Federer
Stanislas Wawrinka
 Sweden (SWE)
Simon Aspelin
Thomas Johansson
 United States (USA)
Bob Bryan
Mike Bryan
Women's singles
Elena Dementieva
 Russia
Dinara Safina
 Russia
Vera Zvonareva
 Russia
Women's doubles
 United States (USA)
Serena Williams
Venus Williams
 Spain (ESP)
Anabel Medina Garrigues
Virginia Ruano Pascual
 China (CHN)
Yan Zi
Zheng Jie

During The Paralympics

The Courts also hosted the wheelchair tennis competitions of the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. These were played between 8 and 15 September 2008.

112 athletes (approximately 64-80 male and 32~48 female) were classified into disability group.

The competitions played included:

The winners

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's singles
Shingo Kunieda
 Japan
Robin Ammerlaan
 Netherlands
Maikel Scheffers
 Netherlands
Men's doubles
 France (FRA)
Stéphane Houdet
Michaël Jeremiasz
 Sweden (SWE)
Stefan Olsson
Peter Wikstrom
 Japan (JPN)
Shingo Kunieda
Satoshi Saida
Women's singles
Esther Vergeer
 Netherlands
Korie Homan
 Netherlands
Florence Gravellier
 France
Women's doubles
 Netherlands (NED)
Korie Homan
Sharon Walraven
 Netherlands (NED)
Jiske Griffioen
Esther Vergeer
 France (FRA)
Florence Gravellier
Arlette Racineux
Quad singles
Peter Norfolk
 Great Britain
Johan Andersson
 Sweden
David Wagner
 United States
Quad doubles
 United States (USA)
Nick Taylor
David Wagner
 Israel (ISR)
Boaz Kramer
Shraga Weinberg
 Great Britain (GBR)
Jamie Burdekin
Peter Norfolk

After The Olympics/Paralympics

After the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic games of 2008, the center remained standing. It did not host the 2008 China Open Tennis tournament, despite rumours it would. However, it became the new home of the China Open from 2009 onwards. A new center court was completed in 2011. Featuring a retractable roof, this new court possesses a capacity of 15,000 spectators, making it the world's fourth largest tennis stadium by capacity. Lincuiqiao Station on Beijing Subway Line 8 opened on the same year, providing the closest public transport access to the tennis center.

See also

References

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