Brisbane, Australia – Construction has begun on the new $84 million Zhuhai International Tennis Centre, on Hengqin Island in Guangdong Province, China, designed by global sports architects, Populous, with the first stage scheduled for completion in time to host a WTA event in November 2015.

This is the second high profile international standard tennis centre which has been designed by Populous, the designers of Wimbledon Centre Court’s moving roof and the recently completed Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne.

The firm won the Zhuhai Tennis Centre following a high profile international competition. All work done during the competition and then developing the design after the competition has been carried out from Populous’ Asian headquarters in Brisbane.

Populous Asian Director, Senior Principal Andrew James said the market in China for tennis and other leisure sports like horse riding in China is growing rapidly.

“This is not only because of an increasing middle class who have more leisure time, but also because the Chinese Government is now more focused on professional sports. This facility will set a construction benchmark for China because of its complexity,” he said.

Zhuhai Tennis Centre will host the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai from 2015-2019. The first stage of the Centre’s development, which will be completed by next September, includes a Centre Court with 5,000 seats, 5 other match courts including 1,000 seat court and 12 training courts. Populous has carried out the architectural design, interior design and landscape design of the project.