Nike has opened a tennis court on the roof of Melbourne Central during one of the city’s biggest sporting events.

The retailer, which has a flagship store in the CBD centre, this week launched a semi-permanent 3/4 size tennis court for The Australian Open.

The Nike branded idea offered ‘money can’t buy’ events to limited punters, such as tennis tips from tennis star, Roger Federer.

Justin Shannon, GM of Melbourne Central, told Inside Shopper the series of rooftop events aim to attract extra foot traffic and welcome tourists.

“Melbourne Central is located just 15 minutes from [The Australian Open venue] Melbourne Park. We are looking to attract this audience to our centre.

“We anticipate that by attracting the tourist market, we will see an increase in sales.”

Other events held on the rooftop have included a fitness lesson from Maria Sharapova, and customer fittings and trials of Nike tennis product.

Shannon said the centre based the campaign on the insight that a significant portion of the centre’s customers are tourists that use Melbourne Central’s train station during the tennis.

“Many tennis fans choose to start or finish their journey at Melbourne Central to take advantage of the broad retailer mix or take in the centre’s architectural beauty.

“This is the first time we have opened the rooftop space to the general public, so it is a great trial of this unique space.

“We know the people of Melbourne love a rooftop, so this was the optimum time to open this space for this special event.”

Nike is not offering rooftop patrons special deals or vouchers as part of its activation, however, it does have Nike staff on hand to field questions.