Tennis tournament in Madrid
The WTA 1000 – Madrid Open is a professional tennis tournament to be held from April 26 to May 8 in Europe. It is among the highest ranked men’s and women’s pro tournaments. Matches are played on clay surface in a huge complex in the capital.
History
A former professional gambler and successful businessman, Ion Tsiriac had long nurtured the idea of organizing a prestigious tournament. In late 2001 he discovers that the organisers of the Masters Tournament in Stuttgart are experiencing financial difficulties. Ciriac buys a license from ATP to host the tournament. He hoped to have, though not the biggest, but the best tournament in the world. And by further action, he is constantly striving to do so.
Madrid was chosen as the venue, for which the new owner was persuaded by his rival player and friend in life Manolo Santana.
The tournament has been held since 2002. Since 2009, the men’s tournament belongs to the ATP Masters 1000 series with a prize fund and a tournament grid designed for 56 participants in singles and 24 pairs.
Since 2009, the tournament has opened its doors to women. Prior to that, only men could participate. The women’s event belongs to the WTA WTA Premier Mandatory Series with a prize pool and a tournament schedule of 64 singles and 28 doubles players.
Also, the event was given the highest ATP status, the Masters 1000. Thus, the prize fund rose to 5 million euros. Women’s analogue also received the maximum WTA category – Premier Mastery status. Its prize fund is more than 4 million euros.
Men’s tournament was organized in 1990. Immediately it received the Masters license. The first place of the competition was Stockholm. In Sweden the tournament was held for 5 years. Then it was moved to the hard courts of Germany. At first one season was held in Essen, then some in Stuttgart. The men’s championship did not move to Madrid until 2002.
Since 2009 the Madrid tournament has been held in the second half of spring. Previously matches were played in November. Thus, in 2009 the championship of Madrid took a place in the tour competition in Hamburg.
It is interesting that all games of the season 2012 were played on blue soil. Prior to that, the traditional surface was red. However, the novelty was not to the liking of the tennis players. Many experts were not satisfied with the surface, noting many flaws in it. As a result, it was decided to return to the familiar red soil in the new season.
In the men’s category, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, Boris Becker and Roger Federer are regarded as the best racquet at the Madrid tournament in terms of the number of trophies. The Bryan brothers and Canadian Daniel Nestor are unmatched among the doubles players.
In the women’s division Serena Williams, Roberta Vinci, Maria Sharapova, Sara Errani, Petra Kvitova and others are considered the strongest.