Why tennis’ Madrid Open is a prestigious tournament full of curiosities
If organizers schedule an important tennis tournament and a slew of the best players in the world miss it, is it still an important tournament? This is the question the Madrid Open will present to the tennis world over the next 10 days. It’s the same question that the Canadian Open presented last summer, when Carlos Alcaraz , Jannik Sinner , Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka decided to skip the event in favor of rest.
The Madrid Open and the Canadian Open are two of the six biggest mixed events in tennis outside the Grand Slams, known as ATP Masters 1000s and WTA 1000s. The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells , Calif. , the Miami Open , the Italian Open and the Cincinnati Open are the others.
These events award the most prize money and the most rankings points, other than the season-ending ATP and WTA Tour Finals , for which only the top eight singles players of the season qualify. They also receive the most money for sponsorships and media rights . Licenses for these events are valued at roughly $500 million.
Tennis isn’t making more of them at the moment. The Grand Slams aren’t for sale. A 1,000-level license is the most valuable commodity in the sport.
Fans also travel from all manner of time zones and cross plenty of borders to attend — and to see their favorite players. To be at one of these events is supposed to be akin to being at the center of the tennis universe, where it’s all happening, because by rule, during a combined ATP and WTA 1000 event, nothing can happen at the tour level anywhere else. They run 12 days, which is why ATP Challenger Tour and WTA 125 events — the second rungs of professional tennis — see their entry lists get stacked during the second week of the headline show, in case top players lose early.
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