LOMBOK – The Rafa Nadal Academy is expanding into Indonesia with plans to open Southeast Asia’s first Rafa Nadal Tennis Center in Lombok, adding a major international sports facility to the island’s growing tourism landscape.

The new center will be located within Samara Lombok, a resort development on the island’s southern coast, and is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2028.

The facility will feature four tennis courts and four padel courts, with training programmes available for players of different ages and skill levels.

According to the academy, the programmes will follow the training methodology developed by Rafael Nadal and his coaching team over more than two decades of experience on the professional tennis circuit.

Maribel Nadal, Deputy General Manager of the Rafa Nadal Academy, said the expansion into Indonesia marked an important step for the organisation in Southeast Asia.

“We are very excited about the arrival of the first Rafa Nadal Tennis Center in Southeast Asia,” she said.

“Lombok is a destination with enormous international potential, and we believe this project will help bring our methodology and passion for the sport to a new generation of players and families from around the world.”

The tennis center will form part of the wider Samara Lombok development, a 150-hectare masterplanned resort that is expected to include three boutique hotels, 500 villas, restaurants and a range of sporting and wellness facilities.

Samara says the resort is scheduled to launch in 2028 with all three hotels, 150 operational villas and its initial collection of facilities.

The Lombok project will expand the international footprint built around Nadal’s tennis training methodology.

The network currently includes Rafa Nadal Academy locations in Mallorca and Kuwait, along with Rafa Nadal Tennis Centers and programmes in destinations including Mexico, Greece, Hong Kong, Marbella, Punta Cana and Egypt.

A further Rafa Nadal Tennis Center is also planned for Porto Belo in Brazil’s Santa Catarina state. Scheduled to open in late 2028, it will become the organisation’s first tennis center in South America.

The decision to establish the first Southeast Asian center in Lombok also places the island alongside a growing list of international resort destinations combining high-end hospitality with professional sports facilities.