RE: 2016 Clay Olympics
GameSetAndMath said:
Initially, there were rumors that 2016 Olympics will be in Clay. Then after the dust settled,
there were rumors saying it will be on hard courts. Then for a while, it looked like nobody
really knew on what courts it will be played on.
However, Rafa states (see the link in OP) that 2016 Olympics will be on clay as a matter
of fact. From his statement, I assume that it is now a surety that it will be on clay.
That is the reason, I started the thread.
Masterclass, do you have information to the contrary? Have you seen any official
announcement on this regard?
GSM, I've seen no authoritative confirmation that it is either on hard or clay. So far I've seen architect's proposals, designs, etc. Some are like the images I used above, some are like the dark red on red image that sort of looks like the old Basel hard court colors, or perhaps it meant to look like clay, who knows?
The Olympic site itself has an extensive description of the Barra Tennis Center venue, number of stadium courts, number of outside courts, the fact that some of it is temporary for the Olympics only, the fact that Brazil wants it designed so that it will be permanently useful, perhaps even to support a future masters 1000 or 500 event. But in all of that detail, they conveniently neglect to mention the surface. I sent a tweet to the official Olympic twitter asking them to confirm the surface, but have had no response as of yet. It may be that it hasn't officially been decided yet.
I believe the article you mention might be mixing up some of Rafa's quotes due to the current tournament in RIO. Or perhaps Rafa believes they will be using the court in this tournament for the Olympics, or maybe he believes that it will have to be clay. I don't know. The tennis.com article is coming from the Break Point BR article, which is a translation of the original Spanish... You know how easy it is for things to get confused in the translation.
I'd like to see it confirmed by the official Olympic venue. And as others have said, it's still 2 years away. Things can change. But one thing that is for sure is the 2016 Summer Olympic schedule. It's set for Aug 5 to Aug 21. I personally don't think it makes sense for them to have tennis on clay so close to the US Open, when the players have already transitioned from clay to grass in late spring, and then grass to the summer American hard courts. But one never knows.
Respectfully,
masterclass
