Enter Pablo del Campo, an Argentine artistic and tennis fan. Impressed by the combined surfaces of a baseball stadium in Miami that he flew over as a toddler, Del Campo got here up with the thought of a half-grass, half-clay courtroom.
“When the outfield meets the infield, the grass meets the grime… seeing that from above, I noticed a hybrid tennis courtroom,” mentioned Del Campo, who had beforehand tried unsuccessfully to rearrange a mixed-surface match between Pete Sampras and Gustavo Kuerten, the main grass and clay gamers earlier than the Federer-Nadal period.
Del Campo first approached Nadal and Federer’s groups in 2005 with the thought and each finally agreed to an exhibition match on the combined surfaces, with the Swiss saying it might be “enjoyable” and “thrilling”.
“I believe that the thought was irresistible for each Federer and Nadal,” Del Campo informed the BBC’s Sporting Witness podcast.
Building of the courtroom took 19 days, costing $1.63m (£1.28m), and organisers needed to deal with a worm infestation, however lastly the courtroom – described as “the most effective pictures that I’ve ever seen in tennis” by Djokovic – was prepared.