The Mutua Madrid Open has been in existence for almost a quarter of a century, and for six seasons now Feliciano L\u00f3pez 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.<\/p>\n
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Q.- A new Mutua Madrid Open is just around the corner. \u00a0Obviously experience helps a lot, but every year is also different, isn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- Yes, a lot of things are already done. It\u2019s been over 20 years, but there are always challenges. 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 fifty-six to ninety-six players and it\u2019s not just them, it\u2019s 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, courts…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now we have many more courts in the Caja M\u00e1gica. We\u2019re currently finishing building four, last year they added two more… We\u2019re making the best use of the space possible and this year we need to drive it home and improve the finer details that didn\u2019t go as well as we expected last year, but it was obviously difficult, being the first year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- Nowadays it seems like there\u2019s a constant pressure for innovation, including in sport. How does the tournament deal with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- We\u2019ve always been pioneers. We\u2019ve been a very innovative and technological tournament. In that regard we\u2019ve always been the ones to take the biggest risks, always with the goal of doing new things and surprising people. The year of the pandemic we hosted a virtual tournament, with professional players competing online, which was pretty innovative at the time and nobody was expecting it. We always try to surprise people, but it\u2019s true that the margin is getting smaller and smaller because the standards of the tournament are very high in every regard, but we\u2019ve always worked hard here to find a way to do things better. Since I started to work here, I\u2019ve learned that there\u2019s always room to do things better. It\u2019s already difficult, but in the future, when the new stadium is ready, 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- This year could be Nadal\u2019s last appearance. Is the tournament ready for that?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- Nobody\u2019s ready for Nadal to leave us, honestly. Not the fans, not his peers, I think that Rafa\u2019s retirement will be very painful for the whole tennis world, but we don\u2019t know when it will be. Hopefully it\u2019ll be very late, as late as possible… But, I don\u2019t want to believe it\u2019s his last playing year here either. I hope he still has a few left, because there\u2019s currently a lot of uncertainty surrounding his retirement. I\u2019m not thinking about this being Rafa\u2019s last time here. My wish is for him to be well and healthy, and that he can complete a clay swing as he would like to. From there, we\u2019ll see what happens. But I think he\u2019ll still play in Madrid more than once. I hope this isn\u2019t his last.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- Because he is, without a doubt, the most important player in the event\u2019s history, isn\u2019t he?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- It\u2019s almost an offensive question. It\u2019s obvious. Nadal has done things that have never happened in history. He\u2019s not only the best Spanish sportsman of all time, for many he\u2019s also the best tennis player in history. Yes, the debate is still open. Some say Djokovic, who has the irrefutable numbers. But others believe Rafa has also made a case. Personally, I believe he\u2019s done incredible things that might contribute to him being considered the best in history, above all the fact that he\u2019s won the same Grand Slam 14 times. To me, that achievement eclipses others. This tournament was born without Rafa, but it grew up with him and obviously he has made an inordinate contribution to the whole growth of the tournament. The people of Madrid adore him and it\u2019s been amazing to see the tournament grow along with our best player.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- Madrid has also adopted Carlos Alcaraz. What is it people most like about him?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- What I like most about Carlos Alcaraz is his bravery. I think he\u2019s a tremendously brave player who has no fear of taking on the best, we\u2019ve seen that since he started at 17 or 18 years of age… He stood up to the three best players of all time, even though it was for a short time. Because Federer, for example, is no longer playing. Rafa in the last two years has barely played, but he was very brave facing Djokovic and beating him in the Wimbledon final. I think I would highlight his bravery, his self-confidence, the way he carries himself on court. I think he\u2019s one of those different players where you never know what\u2019s going to happen and I think that\u2019s incredible. I don\u2019t see players in tennis today who surprise you or that lift you off your seat because they do something different and special. And Carlos has that. That bravery, that variety of shots to me is Carlos\u2019 hallmark. He\u2019s arrived at a time in which tennis has one similar style, and suddenly this kid comes along and surprises you, hits a drop shot at you, comes to the net, attacks, defends… That\u2019s why I think people like him so much.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- How do you see Djokovic this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- I think he\u2019s playing well. He lost in the final in Australia, then he played before the clay swing in Indian Wells and lost early, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s enough to think that Djokovic is going through a bad patch. In Australia, he lost to Sinner, who played a great game. I think there would have to be more tournaments in which Djokovic isn\u2019t at his best to think that he\u2019s in a rut. There\u2019s still a lot of the season left and honestly, if he doesn\u2019t have any fitness issues, and as I understand it he doesn\u2019t, then I think he\u2019ll be one of the ones fighting for the big titles, as he has done over the last 15 years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- After the Big 3, will we see a period in men\u2019s tennis akin to the women\u2019s game, where there is a very open battle to dominate?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- I\u2019m seeing a very big generational change, and the players are very different to before. We\u2019re going to see some very different years and not such a clear dominance of just a few players, although I think there will be two, Sinner and Alcaraz, who will be at the top. Obviously, there\u2019ll be people who disagree, but I think they have something different to the rest. After them, Medvedev, he\u2019s a little older, but he belongs to the same generation as Carlos and Jannik. I think he\u2019s made his case for us to consider him a contender for the big tournaments in the coming years. But I think it\u2019ll be between Carlos and Jannik at the helm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- There\u2019s an increasing number of players who are mothers in the women\u2019s game. Will there be a nursery at the Mutua Madrid Open?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- Well, we\u2019ve had a nursery here for many years. We\u2019re trying to find the space because now, with all the changes in the Caja M\u00e1gica with the new tournament, we needed a load of spaces that were previously used for other things, and that was one of them. But yes, there are nurseries at other tournaments around the world, because an increasing number of players travel with their families. In some cases, small babies need to have a space like that to spend the day, either with their mothers or people who are working to help. We\u2019re working on that, of course. It\u2019s not new for us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q.- How does the future of the Mutua Madrid Open look? Will the new court be built soon?<\/strong><\/p>\n A.- The court will be built in the north zone, alongside the current outdoor courts, in a space that\u2019s currently a lake. It\u2019ll be ready for 2025 or 2026, but it\u2019s already underway, approved, and work is being done on it. We\u2019ll know a more specific timeframe when the licences come through and things are resolved before starting, but the idea is to have another court with 8,000 or 10,000 seats in two years or less. Now we have matches that can attract those spectators and we have to put them in the second stadium, which is 3,500 seats. It\u2019s a slight handicap because although the stadium is spectacular, it has a roof, and the spectators are very close to the players, it has a limited capacity. The new court will give the tournament a new dimension and I think it\u2019s the cherry on the cake that we need to be more like a Grand Slam. We already are in every regard, but a stadium of that magnitude will give us the opportunity to have big matches on both courts over many days, and that gives you a real Grand Slam feel. That\u2019ll be the cherry on the cake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Mutua Madrid Open has been in existence for almost a quarter of a century, and for six seasons now Feliciano L\u00f3pez 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":92001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[875],"tags":[1026,828,1060],"class_list":["post-91999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mutua-news-en","tag-2024-en","tag-feliciano-lopez-en-2","tag-trohpy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92003,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91999\/revisions\/92003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}