Test Event Could Be Start of "Special Moment" for Brazilian Tennis

(ATR) Rio organizers tell Around the Rings their excitement to begin testing the Olympic Park is palpable, but tennis experts believe the best is yet to come.

On Dec. 10-12, tennis will hold a test event in the Olympic Park, the first sport to do. As of Nov. 18, Rio City Hall said that construction of the Olympic Park was 94 percent completed, with the Tennis Center being 85 percent finished.

Construction delays plagued the Tennis Center, and the test event will take place with construction on the venue not fully completed. Rio organizers said to ATR that they know this will impact the competition, and that the venue is still "on track" to be ready for the Olympics.

"The field of play is working fine, and the venue is going to be just fine for the purpose of the test that we have," Gustavo Nascimento, Venue Management Director for Rio 2016, said to ATR."This is going to be a huge milestone for us with huge interest worldwide as you can probably predict. We are supremely confident that it's going to be a lot of fun to open the Park for the sport for the first time."

Rio 2016 Director of Sport Rodrigo Garcia echoed Nascimento’s sentiment to ATR saying the test event will serve as a "special moment," for all those who have been involved in the Olympic project.

"This will be the first sport venue that will be open, and we are really enthusiastic of this event," Garcia added.

International Tennis Federation President David Haggerty said to ATR that the federation is sending a team down to Rio to inspect the venue, and get a progress report during the test event. Even with things still "coming into line," the federation remains confident of a successful event.

While holding an Olympic tennis tournament in Rio de Janeiro will certainly make the sport more visible, tennis leaders believe the legacy of the event will be the real reward for the of Brazil. Brazilian Tennis Federation President Jorge Lacerda said to ATR there will be no use of public funds to maintain the Tennis Center post-Games, and the federation hopes to move its headquarters to Rio de Janeiro from Sao Paulo.

"Taking advantage of this moment, we will present a project to the mayor, the governor, to the Minister of Sports, showing that that center is not white elephant," Lacerda said.

"We want to bring our headquarters to Rio de Janeiro, to become the new main office of tennis federation. In comparison with France and the United States, Brazil will have kind of the same structure as a training center in a public park where we can bring the players to play and train here.

"If Rio wants it we can make Rio de Janeiro the tennis Brazilian capital."

Gustavo Kuerten, the only world number one ranked tennis player from Brazil, said that moving the headquarters of the federation to Rio, it could be the start of a "major transformation," of tennis in the country.

"The sport is still seen in a very amateur way," Kuerten said to reporters on the fifteen anniversary of his becoming ranked number one in the world.

"The Olympics will serve to show that sport is not only a result; it goes far beyond that. Having a national center, one for large events, a place for analysis taken with professionalism, can be the cornerstone of a major transformation in tennis."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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