Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/515304
The ITF carried out a second site visit to Rio de Janeiro in October 2014 where they once again met with the different functional areas (departments) of the organising committee and looked at the sites of the Olympic Tennis Event and the Olympic Village. The Olympic Tennis Centre is located within the Olympic Park in the Barra Cluster. During the October visit it was possible to walk around the site and see the centre court was well under construction. The remaining courts were all marked out with building work in progress. The tender process for the court supplier (hard court) is reaching its conclusion and an announcement is pending. Work on the Olympic Village is at an advanced stage and the ITF was able to see the plans and models for the completed area, and also how the development will work after the Olympic Games. The schedule for the Olympic Tennis Event, which will feature five medal events, has now been finalised. There will be two sessions on the centre court for the first five days of play (start times of 10.45 hrs and 18.45 hrs) with one session on all other courts (start time of 11.00 hrs). From day six there will be one session on each court starting at 12.00 hrs. As at London 2012, there will be five televised courts. The first phase of ticket orders for key stakeholders, such as International Federations, began towards the end of 2014, with the second phase commencing in the second quarter of 2015. 14 PROFESSIONAL TENNIS: OLYMPIC TENNIS EVENT OLYMPIC TENNIS EVENT As is well documented, Rio 2016 has a challenge to ensure enough suitable accommodation is available for the Olympic Games. The ITF has now been given an allocation of rooms and while all accredited personnel are accounted for, the ITF received considerably less rooms for its guests than had been requested. Some of the hotels are still under construction and the building process is being closely monitored by the City Hall, who meet weekly with Rio 2016 in order to update them on the progress of all hotels. The tennis test event will be carried out in December 2015 when the venue facilities and operations will be fully tested and subsequently reviewed. 5 MEDAL EVENTS WILL FEATURE IN THE OLYMPIC TENNIS EVENT AT RIO 2016