On April 19th 2022, the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club celebrated 130 years of life. Founded in early 1892 by a group of English immigrants who loved the sport, it soon and firmly established itself in the city whose name adopted, and a few years later, it settled in its current location.
The club house, built in 1920, was declared cultural heritage of the City a couple of decades ago. In 1926 its emblematic Central Stadium was inaugurated; it was the first in South America to be built by a club for the exclusive practice of tennis. Many outstanding international players performed on that stage, from Fred Perry and Margaret Smith Court to Rafael Nadal and the sisters Venus and Serena Williams, as well as our very memorable Gabriela Sabatini and Guillermo Vilas. Davis Cup matches and the ATP Buenos Aires tournament are still played right there today.
The Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club is the only club in Argentina to become World Interclub Champion, in 1979. Our team, headed by Vilas, Ricardo Cano (our current Tennis Captain) and others won the final match, played in Belgium, against a powerful Czech team led by Ivan Lendl. Our club also stands out for another unique feature of its institutional heritage: since 1893 it has organized the Río de la Plata tournament, which has been continuously played since then, making it the fifth oldest tournament in the world, preceded only by Wimbledon (1877), US Open and Canada Open (1881) and Roland Garros (1891).
For these and other sports merits, the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club is commonly identified as the Cathedral of Argentine tennis. This new anniversary encourages us to continue being so.
