It is official Australian Openthe first Grand Slam of 2026 begins on January 12th, just over three weeks from now. But as a starter, these days Buenos Aires was able to enjoy a preview of what is usually seen at Melbourne Park every summer. Starting this year, year-end sports suggestions are included Road2Ausan exhibition tournament created by the company We Grow with the idea of repeating part of the activities of the Australian Open in a week in December and of course on a different scale.
In some ways, Buenos Aires is usually an interesting place to watch tennis at the end of the year. Several exhibitions have been held over the years, the likes of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have joined, and a few decades ago the Argentine Cup was also played on hard courts, with several members of the legendary legion taking part. But this Road2Aus goes one step further, with the idea of getting ahead of schedule and turning the Buenos Aires Central Court into a branch of the Australian Open. It is an unusual spectacle that also serves to prepare the players and offers the opportunity to rehearse with a similar intensity to the league games.
The idea came about a few months ago in discussions between Emiliano SerranoCEO of the management company We Grow, and Andrew Schneiderformer player and coach. “It’s impressive how it all came to life. We are very happy. On the one hand for the sporting part, but also for the extra, such as the gastronomic offer that the public has and the space for the sponsors who accompany us. That is.” a comprehensive proposal. We are very aware that this is the first tournament, that it was and is a very big challenge, but we are laying the first foundation and now we have to build on it. We have already established a standard and from there we have to evolve, contribute more to the welfare of the people, more in sports, make it an entertainment venue,” says Serrano THE NATION.
-Is there an audience that wants to watch tennis at this time of year?
-Well, the truth is that that was our big question, whether we would be able to attract people at this time of year, almost Christmas. And the answer is a surprise because everyone tells us that he is a tournament winner. It’s true that we’re still working on it and there’s a lot to improve, but we’ve gotten very good feedback from people. It is all part of the knowledge that the flow of editions will of course give us.
Even the first glance shows the effect: the central court Accustomed to the orange world of sand, the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club tennis club features a light blue color combined with the greenish blue of the court, which invariably references the Oceanic Tour courts. The balls will also be used in Australia and almost all players will also take part in the first major event in 2026.
How did this come about? a course with the same surface as the Australian Open? “We started the work, the manufacturing and construction process of the court about 20 days ago, which involves several layers of different materials, starting from acrylic asphalt, a mesh, a fiberglass that is applied to the asphalt, then a special material called rubber powder and then several layers of a special paint that contains rubber and gives it the roughness and speed. It is a very manual work. Already in the days before we brought several players to test it and we gave feedback to see what it was like, and they told us that’s how it was.” was slow, so we gave it different coats of paint to make it faster,” explains Serrano. However, the court will have to be dismantled as soon as this Road2Aus ends, as production work will begin immediately for the Argentina Open, which will take place in February.
There are some government licenses: Several games were played using the short set system (4 games instead of 6, with a tie-break when 3 are reached), so that on the one hand several games can be seen per day and the players gradually get into the rhythm and these games are valuable as samples for what is to come. Apart from the fact that it is an exhibition, a large part of the points are taken seriously because the competition is lived in every respect. Even the climate seems to approach the rigors of the Melbourne summer with temperatures over 30 degrees. “From day one, the short sentence was our idea because we didn’t want the pre-season games to be an additional burden when many players are undergoing very strong physical training, and we believe that some impressive games have come out of it,” explained Serrano.
Another curiosity: there was no activity on Thursday due to a determination by the ATP that states this A player may not participate in an exhibition event for three days in a rowas the tennis players had played games on Tuesday and Wednesday. The statement read: “This restriction applies more to the players than to the event itself. There is no problem with the ATP, and we are the ones who have to take care of the players, because if not, there is a very important fine. It is a regulatory matter, but beyond that there was no obstacle. We have spoken to the ATP about this idea from the beginning and the reaction from their side has been very positive. It does not mean that they have to approve something, because that is special, but we understand that it is always better that way to be.” be aligned and do things “If we want this to happen in the long term and we have the support of the big players, it clearly has to be done in the most collaborative way possible and with a lot of communication.”
On the other hand, There were contacts with Tennis Australia during the yearthe association of this sport in this country, with the intention of making the association more official, since the Open is interested in spreading tennis in this region; In fact, there is an Australian-sponsored youth tournament in Brazil. “We met with them and the conversions were very good, but honestly, due to the closeness of the times, it was decided to continue the discussions and re-establish contact in the future. We sent them a formal invitation, with the idea that this is something much bigger and that they too can be part of it.” Diego SchwartzmanThe former Top 10, who works with Tennis Australia on the player representation side, was selected by that organization to follow this first edition of Road2Aus and take note of every aspect of the competition. “We understand that they see it first hand with Diego and that is spectacular for us so that they can also get an idea of the event that took place,” adds the director of the Buenos Aires tournament.
A large investment was required to set up a tournament. From the organization’s side, they were very pleased with the response to the challenge of the unknown. Serrano noted: “It was great, especially when the sponsors came and could see what we did. All year long we talked about what we were going to do, obviously because it was the first time at this tournament. And out of trust and work, a lot of sponsors trusted us. We have about 20 sponsors with different types of agreements and with SAP as the main sponsor, which has supported us very well in terms of money, people, know-how and technology proposals.”
Of course there are imponderables. On Friday day there was a last-minute change: Camilo Ugo Carabelli, who had qualified for the semi-finals, was replaced by Genaro Olivieri due to physical problems (“It’s an overload that increased over the days. It’s my sixth week of preparation. I wanted to prevent something worse,” said the sorcerer); Instead of giving a WO (Non-Presentation), it was decided to keep the program with the next highest player. It wasn’t the only absence; The most notable was that of the British Cameron Norrieone of the most important names who stopped playing hours before the tournament started. “There have been ups and downs among the players, yes, but I understood that part of it is that we are not the first or the last that a confirmed player cannot play. It is part of the experience of what it means to organize a tournament,” Serrano commented on the matter.
In sports, the competition ends this Saturday with a women’s final from 5:30 p.m. led by Julia Riera and Jazmín Ortenzi; at 8 p.m. The men’s game will be played with Mariano Navone And Roman Burruchaga as protagonists, with broadcast on ESPN. In both cases these are games in the traditional format, best of three sets. On what it means to play here at this stage of the year, Burruchaga said: “I’ve played several games and I feel pretty comfortable. Last year I didn’t play that much on this surface, but we have to keep improving and the ATP Tour has a lot of fast-paced tournaments, so that’s welcome.” For Navone, it’s about playing seriously. “There we don’t shout ‘let’s go’, there are some points that are more fun, but for us it brings something different, closer to the competition. We try things, sometimes it plays well, sometimes it doesn’t,” said the 9 de Julio player.
Road2Aus is intended to be long-term and will be continued in Buenos Aires. “From next week we will get to work. We had never worked on organizing a tournament, so the safest thing for all parties was to reach an agreement for a year. We are happy with the club, so the idea is to repeat all the editions here, in the most emblematic stadium that Argentina and possibly the region has,” said Serrano. It’s possible they could add doubles games next season, have some juniors as well, and bring in the area’s best players. The balance sheet, for the organization: “From a conceptual point of view, I would say that the balance sheet is more than positive. From an economic point of view, there are many things that we can do better and differently so that the account pays off better at the end of the day. Of course, we have our business models that are long-term.”
Something more ambitious: could you join in? a second stage? Serrano analyzes: “It is a very important logistical and economic challenge. It is an answer that we can answer when we see where we can take the tournament. It is clearly a different type of format because today we have everything in the Central Stadium, everything happens there. Opening other fields means other things: more shows, more people, more games. But there we have to see what we want to achieve, why or why we don’t need it. This year we are presenting something very concrete, we see that all parties receive it.” Well, yes, and that is the most important thing for us.
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