Furthermore, last month saw Junior Eurovision 2024 being held at the venue that also hosts the annual Madrid masters.

This got us thinking: which venues have hosted both Eurovision and top tennis events?

The criteria for making this list is if a venue hosts a tennis event that is currently on the ATP or WTA tours, and has held or is holding a Eurovision or Junior Eurovision contest.

So let’s find out which venues make the list!

This year’s Junior Eurovision, won by Georgia’s Andria Putkaradze, was held at the Caja Mágica, which is Spanish for ‘magic box’. The venue is in the Spanish capital Madrid.

The venue houses three arenas. Two of them are named after former Spanish number 1 tennis players Manolo Santana and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.

Since 2009 the complex has served as the show courts for the Madrid Open. This tournament is classified as an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event and WTA 1000 event, meaning it is one of the most prestigious events on both tours. The 2024 champions in singles were Russia’s Andrey Rublev and Poland’s Iga Świątek.

This arena in Turin, Italy has played host to the ATP Finals since 2021. Outside of the grand slams this is the most prestigious event on the ATP tour, and sees the top 8 players battle it out for the title. This year’s ATP Finals champion was Italy’s Jannik Sinner.

Eurovision 2022 was also held at the Palasport Olimpico. It was the winner from a competitive selection process in which 22 venues in 17 cities bid to host the event. Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 edition of the contest with Stefania.

Next year’s Eurovision will also be held at a venue that holds a significant tennis tournament.

The St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel was the unexpected winner of the bidding process to host Eurovision 2025, following Nemo’s win for Switzerland at the contest in May.

The venue has played host to the annual Swiss Indoors men’s tennis tournament since 1970. Currently it is an ATP Tour 500 event.

The Swiss Indoors was the home tournament of tennis legend Roger Federer, who grew up in Basel and even served as a ball boy at the event before his tennis success. The 2024 singles champion was France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

This arena in Vienna, Austria also hosts an ATP Tour 500 event: the Erste Bank Open. Traditionally it runs in the same week as the Swiss Indoors.

The Erste Bank Open was founded in 1974, the same year ABBA won Eurovision. The current singles champion is Britain’s Jack Draper.

The Wiener Stadthalle hosted Eurovision 2015, which saw Sweden’s Måns Zelmerlöw triumph with Heroes. That same contest also saw Australia debut with Guy Sebastian performing Tonight Again. He finished a respectable fifth place.

2015 also saw Junior Eurovision be held at a venue – the Arena Sofia in Bulgaria’s capital – that would eventually hold a tennis event.

Australia made its debut at Junior Eurovision that year as well, with Bella Paige performing My Girls. Malta’s Destiny Chukunyere was the winner with Not My Soul.

Arena Sofia currently hosts the annual Sofia Open which is an ATP Tour 250 event. It has done so since 2016. The current singles champion is France’s Adrian Mannarino.

The final venue is Rotterdam Ahoy which is in The Netherland’s second largest city.

The arena has hosted the Rotterdam Open, an ATP Tour 500 event, annually since 1972. Jannik Sinner won the 2024 edition of the event.

In 2007 Rotterdam Ahoy played host to Junior Eurovision. Belarus’s Alexey Zhigalkovich won that year with S druz’yami.

The venue was selected to host Eurovision 2020 before it was contest was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. It would eventually host Eurovision 2021 which was won by Italy’s Måneskin with Zitti e buoni.

In 2020 the artists’ entrance to the main arena was renamed “Door Duncan” in honour of 2019 Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence who was born in the nearby town of Spijkenisse.

There are several factors why arenas that are the venues of annual top tier tennis tournaments have also hosted Eurovision in recent years.

First of all is the size of these arenas. Since 2013 there has been a conscious move by the European Broadcasting Union and Eurovision host broadcasters to “scale down” the contest. Not since Eurovision 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany has Eurovision been hosted in a venue that doubles as a football stadium.

This is for a variety of reasons. The bigger the arena the bigger the cost, from renting the arena to paying for all the lighting and equipment. Sound acoustics were also poorer in larger venues, and audience members in the far reaches of the arena could barely see the performers on the stage.

In recent years Eurovision and some Junior Eurovision events have been held in “medium sized” indoor venues, with audience sizes ranging from around 10 000 to 15 000. This is often the size of the main stadiums of tennis arenas, which are generally smaller than other sporting codes given the size of a tennis court.

The second reason is the indoor nature or retractable roofs of these arenas. Tennis is a sport that generally cannot be played in the rain or extreme weather. As a result many of the main stadiums in major tennis tournaments have retractable roofs so the schedule is not significantly affected by adverse weather.

Whilst in theory Eurovision and Junior Eurovision could be held outdoors like many major music festivals, to date they never have been. Sound acoustics can be problematic in outdoor music events.

Furthermore, if the contest was delayed due to adverse weather it would wreak havoc on television scheduling across Europe and the plans of fans who travel across the world to see the event. Therefore it is a pre-requisite that Eurovision be held in an indoor arena or at least one with a retractable roof. Hence this increases the likelihood of Eurovision being hosted in a tennis venue.

Finally many of these arenas are intentionally designed to be able to host many different types of events, including music and sports. “Magic box” is a category used to describe some of these arenas, including Caja Mágica and Palasport Olimpico. Therefore it makes sense why these venues can host both Eurovision and major tennis events.

Australia will likely never host a Eurovision or Junior Eurovision event. However, it is not hard to imagine venues such as Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, the show court of the Australia Open, or Perth’s RAC Arena, which hosts the United Cup, having the capacity to stage a Eurovision event. Especially given they host many musical performances outside the Australian summer of tennis.

It will be exciting to see if this trend of Eurovision and Junior Eurovision contests being held in venues that host major tennis tournaments continues into the future.

We at Aussievision hope you all enjoy the Aussie summer of tennis over the next few weeks!

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