Roof plan for Edinburgh tennis event

TOURNAMENT Director Viki Mendelssohn yesterday spoke of the logistical challenge faced in creating an Edinburgh venue suitable for hosting next month’s Brodies Champions of Tennis event, which will feature John McEnroe, Goran Ivanisevic and Tim Henman.

The construction of a temporary demountable and reusable roof structure to cover an entire open air tennis court at Raeburn Place, home of Edinburgh Accies’ Rugby Club, will begin shortly in preparation for the four-day event which begins on Thursday 20 June.

Mendelssohn said: “I knew it was going to present challenges and I’m delighted that we’ve come up with our own unique court that will deliver that vision, and give weather protection to the players.”

Airsculpt Ltd are the company behind the venue, and their commercial director Damon Farrell said: “With Edinburgh being a windy city, we knew we had to come up with an innovative engineering concept. The task became more challenging when we were told the structure had to comply with ATP international tennis tournament minimum height guidelines.”

Mendelssohn added: “This is the first time a stadia of this nature has been built in Scotland – another first for the event.”