Tournament Director Madrid

[Dinah Lianes]

Lopezis currently in his final year as a professional tennis player before retiring. But the former world No 12 has already been enjoying a new stage of his career as he became the tournament director for the Masters 1000 in Madrid back in 2019.

But the event caused controversy this year after a number of issues that saw female players and ball kids receive questionable treatment. Despite the uproar, the International Tennis Federation has named Lopez the new tournament director for the Davis Cup Finals.

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Coco Gauff - who was the runner-up alongside partner Jessica Pegula - later said: I was told it was a situation that didn't involve me that happened. I'm not going to go into that situation. People probably know what it was.

The Madrid Open (Spanish: Masters de Madrid; formerly known as the Madrid Masters, and currently known as the Mutua Madrid Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Madrid, Spain. It is played on clay courts at the Caja Mgica in Manzanares Park, San Fermn, and is held in late April and early May. The tournament is an ATP Masters 1000 event on the ATP Tour and a WTA 1000 event on the WTA Tour. The tournament is traditionally played on a red clay surface, though it was played on blue clay courts in 2012.[1]

From its inauguration as a men's only event in 2002, the tournament was classified as one of the ATP Masters Series tournaments, where it replaced the now-defunct Eurocard Open in Stuttgart. It was held from 2002 to 2008 in the Madrid Arena as the first of two Master's indoor hard court late-season events that preceded the ATP Tour Finals (also indoors). It was replaced on the Masters schedule by the Shanghai Masters after the 2008 season. In 2009, the tournament was reborn under new ownership with a new location, new surface, and new time slot. It expanded to include a premier women's contest (replacing the tournament in Berlin) and shifted to an earlier period of the tennis season to become the second Master's tournament of the spring European clay-court swing (replacing the Hamburg Open). The event moved outdoors to Park Manzanares, where a new complex with a retractable-roof equipped main court was constructed, the Caja Magica.

Țiriac announced in April 2019 that he has extended his sponsorship contract of the Mutua Madrid Open for 10 additional years, until 2031.[4] Because he agreed to continue in Madrid, Țiriac will receive more than 30 million euros from the city of Madrid in the coming years.[3] Feliciano Lpez was announced as the Madrid tournament director, commencing 2019.[5]

Starting in 2021, the women's tournament, part of the WTA tour, expanded to become a two-week tournament.[6]By December of the same year, it was announced Tiriac sold the event to IMG, which is now the new organizator and has already planned an expansion of courts, including a new stadium for over 10,000 people, to be built by partly draining the lake circling Caja Magica.[7]

In June 2022 ATP announced some changes to the ATP calendar for the coming year. The ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid along with those in Shanghai and in Rome would now be held over two weeks starting in 2023, thus becoming 12 day events just like the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami.[8]

Tiriac proposed and implemented in 2012 a new color of blue clay for all the courts' surfaces, motivating that it would supposedly be better visually, especially for viewers on television (analogous to some hardcourt surface events migrating to blue from various previous color schemes). Some speculated that the adaptation of blue colour was a nod to the titular sponsor of the tournament, the Spanish insurance giant Mutua Madrilea. This controversial change was subsequently granted and began to be used in the 2012 edition of the tournament.[9] In 2009 one of the outer tennis courts had already been made of the new surface for the players to test it. Manuel Santana, the Open's director, had assured that aside from the colour, the surface kept the same properties as the traditional red clay.[10]

However, after the event took place in 2012, threats of future boycotts from some players, especially Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic (who both lost on the blue surface), led the tournament to return to the traditional red clay for the 2013 season.[12] This was due to the blue clay being more slippery than regular clay.[13]

The Mutua Madrid Open has been in existence for almost a quarter of a century, and for six seasons now Feliciano Lpez has been the director of a tournament that changes and grows every year, but whose end goal, its magnetic north, is to keep getting better. Just like in sport, the higher the bar is set, the more carefully you have to prepare for the jump.

Lopez, who has been the Madrid Open's tournament director since 2019, is a four-time Davis Cup champion and reached a career-high ranking of world number 12. The 41-year-old replaces compatriot David Ferrer in the role.

"I've been doing this for the last four years with Madrid and in the beginning it was a big challenge for me," Lopez told Reuters. "I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it, since I was an active player when I decided to join the team in Madrid.

"But I have to say that it is the best decision I've ever made. I was able to still play on the tour, be competitive, and also be on the other side of the industry and learn a lot of things that I wasn't paying attention to as a player."

Lopez, who exited the Stuttgart Open in the second round on Monday, said he plans to compete at more grasscourt events at the Queen's Club and the Mallorca Open and hopes to end his career at Wimbledon, should he get a wildcard for the major.

Sixteen teams will compete in the Finals group stage from September 12-17 across Manchester, Bologna, Valencia and Croatia. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage from November 21-26 in Malaga.

Lopez's compatriot Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, has been sidelined by a hip injury since January and had initially hoped to return for the Finals but is expected to be out for another five months after undergoing surgery in June.

What should have been a celebratory weekend for Madrid Open tennis champions Arnya Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz was at least somewhat dimmed by complaints of unequal treatment. And that wasn't the only controversy to surface over the course of the tournament.

However, when photos of the two players posing with their pastries were posted side-by-side, the difference was readily apparent. Women's doubles champion Victoria Azarenka, who was part of another unrelated controversy two days later, called attention to it on social media.

Tournament director Feliciano Lopez responded to the criticism by pointing out Alcaraz, 20, had just won his semifinal match on center court when he received his gigantic birthday cake. And the Spaniard was playing in front of his home fans.

Meanwhile, Azarenka and her doubles partner Beatriz Haddad-Maia defeated Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in Sunday's final, but in a break with tradition were not given an opportunity to address the crowd after the match.

There was no official explanation why the women's doubles speeches were canceled. However, the tournament has faced criticism in the past for its scheduling of women's matches. Swiatek noted in her speech after the women's singles final that her semifinal didn't finish until 1 a.m.

After complaints were raised, including those from fans watching on television, the revealing outfits seen through the semifinal round were replaced by three-quarter-length skirts for Sunday's men's final.

Rafael Nadal requested that his opening match at the Madrid Open does not clash with his beloved Real Madrid's Champions League semi-final against Manchester City, according to tournament director Feliciano Lopez.

Nadal, who has won the Madrid Open on five occasions, will face Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic in the round of 32 on Wednesday, the same day Los Blancos bid to overturn a 4-3 first-leg deficit against Pep Guardiola's team at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The 21-time grand slam winner is known to be an avid supporter of Madrid and was invited to take an "honorary kick-off" before Carlo Ancelotti's team wrapped up their 35th league title with a 4-0 win over Espanyol at the weekend.

Madrid have won the European Cup/Champions League on a record 13 occasions, also finishing as runners-up three times, and Nadal will hope to have a good view if Los Blancos seal a 17th final appearance on Wednesday.

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"I have some special memories of playing in this competition so I am very happy to be taking a leading role in delivering these events," Lopez said in the ITF announcement. "As tournament director, my sole focus will be to build on the recent success of the competition and make it the best it can be for players and supporters across the world."

Spain and Serbia are together in Group C, setting up a possible meeting between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. The Czech Republic and South Korea are also in the group, which will play in Valencia.

The United States will face Croatia, Finland and the Netherlands in Group D. That group will be hosted by Croatia, although the city and venue has yet to be announced. Defending champion Canada is in Group A along with Italy, Sweden and Chile -- playing in Bologna. Group B consists of host Britain, Australia, France and Switzerland, and will play in Manchester.

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