Venue hosted over 37,000 spectators across three-day tournament
AO Arena once again aced this year’s Davis Cup tournament as it hosted a record 37,000 tennis fans over the weekend.
The venue, now boasting state-of-the-art facilities thanks to a recent £50m redevelopment, saw fans and athletes alike, including British No.1 Jack Draper, soak up the atmosphere of an international tournament across the three days.
Sunday saw the tournament sell over 15,000 tickets, taking attendance that day to higher than Wimbledon’s Centre Court and proving Manchester's credentials as a city on the global tennis circuit.
Stockport-born former tennis star Naomi Broady, who was MC for the second year running, spoke with Manchester Confidential ahead of the tournament about her home city hosting once again with a world-class venue and a top drawer crowd.
“I was really privileged to be asked to do it last year because I'd never MC'd an event before,” she said. “Talk about throwing you in the deep end; doing it at the AO arena, it literally couldn't be at a bigger stage, so I was really nervous, but it was amazing.
“The crowd was brilliant and noisy, which is exactly how you want them at the Davis Cup; you want them to make noise. The players always say their favourite crowds are the noisiest and rowdiest ones.
“Manchester is, as we know, one of the friendliest places that you can be. We just welcome everybody. We're so proud of our city and to welcome the world's best in this sport back again this year is fantastic - three different countries from the ones that we had last year; Team Canada, Team Argentina and Team Finland, taking on Great Britain and of course each other.
“I can't wait to welcome them to the city.”
For more information on future events at the AO Arena visit their website.
Get the latest news to your inbox
Get the latest food & drink news and exclusive offers by email by signing up to our mailing list. This is one of the ways that Confidentials remains free to our readers and by signing up you help support our high quality, impartial and knowledgable writers. Thank you!
Join our WhatsApp group
You can also get regular updates on news, exclusives and offers by joining the Manchester Confidential WhatsApp group.
