Enter Pablo del Campo, Argentine creative and tennis fan. Del Campo, inspired by the mixed surfaces of the baseball stadium in Miami, who flew as a child, came up with the idea of half the court.
“When Outfield meets the infield, the grass meets dirt … I can see that I saw a hybrid tennis court from above,” said del Campo, who previously tried to arrange a mixed surface between Pete Sampras and Gustavo. Kuerten, head of grass and clay players before the era Federer-Nadal.
Del Campo first approached Nadal and Federer’s teams in 2005 with this idea, and they both finally agreed on an exhibition match on mixed surfaces, saying the Swiss would be “fun” and “exciting”.
“I think this idea was irresistible to both Federer and Nadal,” said del campo said Podcast BBC’s Sporting Witness.
The construction of the court lasted 19 days, cost $ 1.63 million (1.28 million GBP) and the organizers had to deal with the attack of worms, but finally the court – described as “one of the best paintings I ever saw in tennis” by Djokovicic – was ready .
