The lotus-shaped tennis center for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games has been completed and is ready for use, Beijing Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

A group of journalists recently visited the newly-built Olympic Green Tennis center in Beijing. [Photo: beijing2008.cn]

Located at the Olympic Forest Park in the northern part of the city, the Olympic Green Tennis Center has ten competition courts and six training courts, with a total capacity of 17,400 seats.

The center will host Good Luck Beijing 2007 ITF (International Tennis Federation) Pro Circuit on Saturday, with over 80 athletes from 13 different countries and regions participating.

Natural ventilation is adopted in the tennis courts, lowering ground temperatures by about five degrees Celsius in the summer, the report says.

The center will host Olympic tennis preliminaries and finals of singles and doubles for men and women and the Paralympic wheelchair tennis competitions in the summer next year.

The newspaper adds that the center will be open for public use when there is no competition.

An interior view of the Olympic tennis center. [File Photo: beijing2008.cn]

An exterior view of the Olympic tennis center. [File Photo: beijing2008.cn]

(CRI October 2, 2007)