The 2016 edition of the Mutua Madrid Open is about to start. Serena Williams is out, leaving World No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska as the top seed. Petra Kvitova is the defending champion for this tournament, and Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is seeded ninth, made the final last year. She has a lot of points to defend. Players in all sorts of situations have a lot to gain (or lose, or both) as they come to Spain this week.
The competition in the 64-player main draw begins on Sunday, May 1.
Event Details
Event: Mutua Madrid Open
Category: WTA Tour – Premier Mandatory
Date: May 1 – 8, 2016
Location: La Caja Magica – Madrid, Spain
With a prize money allotment of just over $4.7 million, the 1,000-point tournament is a gateway event of the season on the WTA Tour. This is the gateway to another equally big event in Rome next week, which leads to the French Open in the final days of May. Four of the next five weeks on tour will be extremely important, and will feature a lot of points (and earnings) on the table. This is the first event, so in a certain sense, it is a beginning of one of the most important (and busy) times on the tennis schedule each year.
The points structure under the WTA system is that the championship means 1,000 points. A runner-up finish is worth 650. A semifinal result is 390 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 215 points. A round-of-16 results provides 120 points, a round-of-32 showing 65 points. It’s a significant amount, which is part of the attraction of some of the bigger names we’ll see in Madrid.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Petra Kvitova def. Svetlana Kuznetsova – 6-1, 6-2
2014 – Maria Sharapova def. Simona Halep – 1-6, 6-2, 6-3
2013 – Serena Williams def. Maria Sharapova – 6-1, 6-4
2012 – Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka – 6-1, 6-3
2011 – Petra Kvitova def. Victoria Azarenka – 7-6, 6-4
Player Info:
After the 96-player fields you saw in Indian Wells and Miami, the Madrid Open offers the 64-player field you normally see at a Premier Mandatory event. Only some of the top players will be here, because a few of them are either sick or injured. Serena and Venus Williams plus Belinda Bencic will not play in this event. Serena has the flu, Venus a hamstring injury, and Bencic a lower back injury. Without the Williams sisters, this event is wide open
Among players who will play are Indian Wells champion Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber, and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Because of all the absences, Kuznetsova – ranked at No. 13 – will be seeded ninth in this tournament. As you can see, this is a fairly strong field of women at this event. We’ve seen a number of tournaments recently where the big guns decided to stay out on the sidelines. Not here, though, as a lot of players are participating in Madrid. That likely has something to do with the (nearly) five million in prize money to be had.
Still on the sidelines is Maria Sharapova, who remains provisionally suspended for taking the banned substance known as Meldonium earlier this year.
La Caja Magica
The Magic Box was built by tennis entrepreneur and Boris Becker’s former manager, Ion Tiriac. The Romanian took this tournament to clay. It had been played as a Masters event for the men on hardcourts through 2008. The arrival of Madrid as a clay event created one of the dual-gender weeks on tour. Both the men and the women play in Madrid this week, which makes The Magic Box even busier than it would otherwise have been.
The clay surface in Madrid – at a higher elevation, and on courts which have a lot of shade (especially the No. 2 and No. 3 show courts) – is a harder surface. There is often a different kind of kick to the surface. It doesn’t play like a traditional clay court such as you would see in Rome or Paris. Players face a real adjustment in trying to get the feel of the courts at this tennis facility, which is still less than a decade old.
Want to give your comments about this article? You can either leave them here or you can join us on the Get More Sports Forum and talk about this article and many more! Brag about your favorite team, argue about an athlete’s performance or tell us about a game you saw. Join a new community of sports fans who live and breathe sports and sports entertainment. It’s free! Join now!
