Brazilian tennis legend Gustavo Kuerten has spoken of his excitement at seeing the Olympic Tennis Centre take shape in Rio de Janeiro – and stressed the importance of the legacy that the venue will leave after the 2016 Games.

The 10,000-seat centre court arena has risen out of the ground in recent months (see photo below) and work is progressing well on the other courts, with foundations completed and the base levels that sit under the courts being laid. For Kuerten, the former world no.1 and three-time French Open champion, the new complex will usher in a new age for tennis in Brazil.

“The legacy can be game-changing,” he told rio2016.com. “That’s both in terms of the impact it will have on enthusiasm for tennis and in physical terms, because the Olympic Tennis Centre will serve as a flagship training centre and a home for competitions that up to now have not been staged in Brazil.

“As well as giving confidence that the venue will be delivered on schedule, seeing the stadium take shape inspires excitement, allowing us to visualise the matches that will be played there and bringing the Olympic dream closer to us. Every day the excitement builds even more,” added Kuerten, who played at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and is a member of the Rio 2016 Sport Advisory Committee.

The 10,000-seat Centre Court arena will be able to stage major tennis tournaments in the future (Photo: EOM/Renato Sette Camara)

As well as the showpiece Centre Court, the Olympic Tennis Centre will comprise Court 1, a temporary structure with 5,000 seats, and Court 2, which will have 3,000 temporary seats but whose court will remain after the Games. There will also be seven outside competition courts, each with 250 temporary seats, plus six practice and warm-up courts.

During the Paralympic Games, the venue will host wheelchair tennis and 5-a-side football. After the Games, Centre Court and seven other courts will form part of the Olympic Training Centre, a cutting-edge base for high-performance athletes in a variety of sports that will be unprecedented in South America.

The Olympic Tennis Centre will be the largest purpose-built, permanent tennis venue in Brazil and will allow Rio to host major international tournaments long after the Games have finished, something that was confirmed by Juan Margets, Executive Vice President of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

“We took the legacy very seriously from the first discussions about this venue,” Margets told rio2016.com. “It was important that this facility could host major tour events if one day the circumstances arise. It will be in a position to stage ATP 500 events and the women’s equivalents. And it has the potential, without major structural modifications, to eventually go up to an ATP 1000 or WTA tier one event, which is extremely important for a region with a strong tradition of tennis, like South America. Along with Parque Roca in Buenos Aires, it will be the major tennis facility on the continent.”

The Olympic Tennis Centre will be close to the entrance of the Barra Olympic Park (Image: EOM)

Margets was in Rio last week to see the construction progress and meet with Games organisers. He stressed there was still plenty of work to be done but said “overall it was very positive” before highlighting the fact that tennis would be within Barra Olympic Park, the largest venue cluster.

“Wimbledon (the London 2012 Olympic tennis venue) was a no-brainer, but our athletes did not have the experience of being in a multi-sport cluster and they were far away from the village,” Margets said. “The plus was to have the Olympics in the most recognisable tennis venue in the world, but we missed being together and here (in Rio) we are in a privileged position at the entrance of the Barra Olympic Park. That’s a very good for us.”

Margets also predicted a very high level of competition at Rio 2016, saying: “The top players understand now what a medal is worth and there is no u-turn from that. The Olympics are now at the top of the players’ priorities forever. In a four-year Olympic cycle, there are 16 grand slam opportunities, so that gives a sense of the uniqueness of an Olympic medal. So Rafa Nadal, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, they all know that there are very few Olympic medals left for them.”

Work on the Olympic Tennis Centre, which is being coordinated by the Rio Municipal Government, is due to finish in the last quarter of 2015, in time for the tennis test event in December 2015.