Madrid: A huge, unique event

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Manolo Santana was not just a pioneer on the tennis court. The legendary Spanish player, the first of his nation to win Wimbledon (1966) as well as breaking through countless other barriers, was a key component in bringing a big tennis tournament to the city of Madrid. It arrived in 2002, when Ion Tiriac took a leap of faith to give the Spanish capital an event the likes of which it had never seen before. None of it would have been possible without Santana’s support.

While Tiriac was at the negotiating table, Santana was bringing all the necessary parties together with the help of his eternal smile, something that was never far from the face of the Madrid native during his 83 years of life (he passed away in 2021).

Thus, the Mutua Madrid Open was born, and the event was welcomed with open arms in Madrid and across the rest of Spain.

From 2002 to 2008, the event was played on indoor hard court in October at the Madrid Arena, in Madrid’s Casa de Campo. With a centre court that seated 9,000 spectators, the tournament’s first edition was jam-packed with stars: Andre Agassi, Marat Safin, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Andy Roddick and a promising young Swiss player called Roger Federer.

It was in that first year that the foundations were laid for what would later become the Mutua Madrid Open: one of the best sporting events in the world, with an illustrious list of winners, but also a social hotspot that was soon frequented by famous faces from all walks of life; actors, musicians, models... nobody wanted to miss a single minute of a gathering that kept growing year after year.

Just when the rivalry between Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Federer was starting to bubble up, in 2009 the tournament was revamped, moving from Casa de Campo to the Caja Magica, an architectural marvel designed by Dominique Perrault and one of the most cutting-edge venues on the calendar.

With three stadiums with retractable roofs, the Mutua Madrid Open also became a combined tournament, tried out blue clay in 2012, when Federer won and Will Smith presented him with his trophy, and has kept progressing ever since, always unafraid of trying something new.

“We’ve always been pioneers,” explained Feliciano Lopez, the tournament’s director. “We’ve always been a very innovative and technological tournament. And in that regard we’ve always been the ones to take the biggest risks, always with the intention of doing something new and surprising people.

“We always try to do surprising things, but it’s true that the margin is getting smaller and smaller because the standards of the tournament are very high in every regard, but we’ve always worked hard here to find a way to do things better. Since I started to work here, I’ve learned that there’s always room to do things better. It’s difficult now, but in the future there will be different things for people to see. But this year the goal is to drive home everything we did well last year and from there polish the finer details.”

As the 2024 tournament draws near, Madrid now boasts one of the best-established events on the calendar. This will be the competition’s fifteenth edition in the Caja Magica, which has hosted the competition since the 2009 season and witnessed countless moments that have gone down in the history of the game. With the Manolo Santana Stadium as the jewel in its crown, the Mutua Madrid Open is getting its glad rags on as it readies to produce yet more stories of sporting excellence.

“It’s been over 20 years, but there are always challenges,” adds Lopez. “The last one came last year, the first season when the tournament lasted two weeks and it was a big challenge in terms of infrastructure and many other things. First, preparing the venue for twice the number of people, because we went from 56 to 96 players and it’s not just them, it’s their whole team and entourage. That affects the entire logistics of it: transport, hotels, etc., because everyone has to be catered for, but above all the challenge was setting up the venue in terms of locker rooms and courts.”

“Now we have many more courts in the Caja Magica,” said Lopez, who officially retired in 2023. “We’ve built four more, last year they added two... We’re making the best use of the space possible, until we run out. But things went well and this year we need to double down on that.”

Once again this season, Madrid will be in the spotlight. The professional tour will set up camp on the clay of the Caja Magica, where moments of sporting magic will go down in the annals of the game. The best players in the world will become the magnetic north, drawing the gaze of the whole world for two weeks of extraordinary tennis.

The big moment is just around the corner, the Mutua Madrid Open is about to become the epicentre of the tennis world.