MADRID/STARNBERG, April 6, 2022
From April 11 to 17, the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid will be the scene for the I Open Comunidad de Madrid, an ATP Challenger Tour 80 tournament, organized by the Madrid Tennis Federation. The €45,730 clay-court event aims to recover the spirit of the Madrid Tennis Grand Prix, which was hosted by the Country Club from 1972 to 1994 featuring the likes of Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Manuel Orantes. Thirty-four courts make the Club de Campo Villa one of the most important tennis venues in Madrid situated in the largest public park of the Spanish capital city.
Juan Luis ‘Tati’ Rascón, president of the Madrid Tennis Federation, stressed that with this tournament the organization wants “to grow the pyramid of international tournaments”, which starts with under-10 tournaments and is now crowned by this new Challenger event.
The inaugural edition of the ATP Challenger Tour tournament will be dedicated to Manolo Santana, Madrid’s best tennis player of all time. The entry list is led by World No. 114 Feliciano Lopez, who was born in Toledo, located less than one hour drive from the Casa de Campo. The 40-year-old will be joined by veterans Thiago Monteiro of Brazil and his compatriot and Madrid native Fernando Verdasco. Big-serving German Mats Moraing, Serbia’s Nikola Milojevic and Chun-hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei are three more players ranked inside the Top 150.
Swiss teenager Dominic Stricker will headline the young guns. The 19-year-old captured his maiden Challenger title on home soil in Lugano last year and also lifted the trophy in Cleveland, United States in early February. In-form Frenchman Manuel Guinard and Belgian rising star Zizou Bergs will also be part of the line-up.
I Open Comunidad de Madrid Entry List
1 Feliciano Lopez 114
2 Thiago Monteiro 116
3 Fernando Verdasco 123
4 Mats Moraing 125
5 Nikola Milojevic 127
6 Chun-hsin Tseng 148
7 Christopher O’Connell 153
8 Dominic Stricker 157
Manuel Guinard 161
Altug Celikbilek 162
Mario Vilella Martinez 172
Alessandro Giannessi 174
Dmitry Popko 175
Pavel Kotov 177
Blaz Rola 182
Gian Marco Moroni 185
Zizou Bergs 186
Dimitar Kuzmanov 191
Maximilian Marterer 192
Timofey Skatov 193
Sebastian Ofner 215
