National Tennis Center, Beijing
The National Tennis Center (simplified Chinese: 国家网球中心; traditional Chinese: 國家網球中心; pinyin: Guójiā Wǎngqiú Zhōngxīn), is a tennis centre located in the Olympic Green. It opened on 1 October 2007. [1] It hosted the tennispreliminaries and finals of singles and doubles for men and women at the Beijing 2008 Olympics as well as the Paralympicwheelchair tennis competitions. In 2009, it became the home of China Open.
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. The Lotus court, Moon court, and Brad Drewett Court all have 12 stands, which represent pedals of lotus flowers, one of the emblems of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Lotus court has a capacity of 10,000. Moon Court has a capacity of 4,000 and Brad Drewett Court has a capacity of 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), 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
All courts except for the National Tennis Stadium 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
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[edit]
| 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:
- men’s singles
- women’s singles
- men’s doubles
- women’s doubles
- quads singles
- quads doubles
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, National Tennis Stadium, was completed in 2011. Featuring a retractable roof, this new court possesses a capacity of 15,000 spectators, making it the world’s fifth largest tennis stadium by capacity. Lincuiqiao Station on Beijing Subway Line 8 opened in the same year, providing the closest public transport access to the tennis center.
