Madrid Open Tournament Tips and Preview

Tournament Preview

One of the biggest clay courts events of the season gets underway in Madrid with both the elite men and women converging on the Spanish capital. The Madrid Open is an event steeped in history and is often one of the most dramatic events on the calendar with a multitude of different winners having picked up both the male and female trophies. Here are our top Madrid Open Tournament tips.

 

Tournament History

The Madrid Open is one of the newer events on the calendar having been on the schedule since 2002 for men and 2009 for women. Despite the relatively short history of both events, they have quickly established themselves as important competitions on both the WTA and ATP tours. The Madrid Open is an ATP Masters 1000 event and a WTA Premier Mandatory event – meaning they are events of the highest prestige on both tours.

 

Format 

The men’s event in Madrid is a 56 player draw with the top 8 seeds receiving first round byes whilst the women’s competition is a 64 player draw – with no byes for the big names.

 

Venue

 The Madrid Open originally launched as a hard court event back in 2002 and was played at the Madrid Arena. In 2009 however, it became one of the premiere clay court events in the world and is now played at the Caja Magica.

 

Dates

Saturday ^4th May 2019 – Sunday 12^th May 2019

 

Previous Winners (Men’s)

The Madrid Open has been dominated by the ‘big 4’ that has had a hold on the ATP Tour for the past decade or so. Rafael Nadal has won the event on 5 previous occasions, with the Mallorcan known for his clay court prowess at this time of the year. Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have all won the event two times each with Alexander Zverev ending that dominance with his tournament win in Madrid last year.

 

Previous Winners (Women’s)

Over the past decade, some of the most decorated players in the women’s game have picked up the Madrid Open trophy. Defending champion Petra Kvitova has the most tournament wins with 3 whilst fellow giants of the game Serena Williams and Simona Halep have both picked up the trophy in the Spanish capital on two previous occasions each.

 

2019 Tournament Preview (Men’s)

Despite not possessing the best record at the Madrid Open (in relation to his records in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and at Roland Garros), Rafael Nadal will once more be the man to beat. His defeat to the in-form Dominic Thiem in Barcelona makes the Austrian one of the favourites this week in the Spanish capital. Roger Federer will be making one of his very few clay court appearances in Madrid and could cause an upset whilst Novak Djokovic will be looking to assert himself as world number one.

 

2019 Tournament Preview (Women’s)

 Defending champion Petra Kvitova has been in supreme form all season and will be looking to return to Madrid in style following her win in Stuttgart last time out. Simona Halep tends to play her best stuff on clay and will have one eye on Naomi Osaka at the top of the rankings too. Karolina Pliskova has also enjoyed a good year on the WTA Tour and will be looking to go deep as will Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber.