Mutua Madrid Open – Day 1
Tennis has been my passion for as long as I can remember. Before the advent of VCRs and, later, PVRs, I spent many an early morning watching, blurry-eyed, matches at the non-North American Grand Slams, always hoping that one day I could see one of them in person. In 2013, I was lucky to see the final of the Barcelona Open but that was just an ATP250 tournament. Sure, Nadal was there, but the smaller events are plentiful and the major players have to pick and choose which ones they go to, especially when the clay season is in full swing. There are just so many of them! Before Covid and while planning this trip, I promised myself to try and get to at least an ATP500 event, and, if things worked out well, maybe even a 1000! Imagine the thrill of (somewhat accidentally) discovering that I was going to be in Madrid at the same time as the ATP1000 Mutua Madrid Open was on! I could say I planned it but, honestly, I did not. It just happened and I couldn’t, wouldn’t let an opportunity like this pass me by. Miss a tournament all the big stars were going to be at? Nah-uh … not a chance.
While not nearly as expensive as the Rogers Cup, the final two days of the tournament were totally out of my price range. Since it wasn’t 100% certain fans were even going to be allowed in yet, the tournament didn’t have any all-week passes available, either. I also held off from buying any tickets until I was certain I could go which, ultimately, wasn’t my brightest idea since by the time I did look for seats, many good ones were already sold out. Undeterred by potentially crappy seats, I told myself it didn’t matter: being there at all would already be amazing.
I was able to get a very decently-priced ticket for the night session on Wednesday (2nd round for men, quarterfinals for women) and then I splurged a little and got both the day and night sessions for Friday, so all four men’s quarterfinals. I figured this combination gave me the best chance to see a decent number of highly-ranked players, assuming the ones I liked made it that far. Alas, it wouldn’t be Federer … he wasn’t coming 😒 but neither was Djokovic so 😃. All these tickets were for the main court at Caja Mágica, Estadio Manolo Santana, which normally seats some 12,000 people though I’m sure that will not be the number in attendance this time around.
To say I was excited about all of this is really the understatement of the century: I was in seventh heaven. In preparation, I had already visited the metro station nearby to buy my metro card, I had the route researched, written down, and hopefully memorized (new city = new names, it all takes a while to sink in, believe me … the metros are at once easy and tricky to navigate: you have to know not only your destination station but also the terminus in the correct direction, and the underground passages, escalators, and stairs can really get you turned around and left with zero spatial sense). La Caja Mágica is a bit out of the centre of Madrid and a ways from the closest metro station so I had to make sure to wear comfy shoes as well. A lot of planning went into this, believe me. All this preparation paid off and I made it to the venue without any problems. I also spent a bit of time stressing out about the curfew (at 11pm here in Madrid) but I figured I’d deal with it when I had to … possibly missing a portion of a 2nd round match wasn’t going to be as critical as that of a closely contested quarterfinal so I had a couple of days to figure it out.
Once out of the metro, the final walk was made easier by the many people who were clearly going to the same place I was. As I got closer, the size and majesty of La Caja Mágica became more and more apparent. Some tennis stadia look big on TV but they look way bigger in person, believe me. I couldn’t wait to get inside but before going through security, I noticed a sign that suggested tickets were available for the Arantxa Sanchez stadium as well, something I had not seen available on the tournament website, so, on a whim, I bought the whole session for the next day, Thursday, and was happy to see that the scheduled 4th round matches included some pretty high-ranking players. One of the biggest problems with buying tickets to a tennis tournament is that you simply don’t know, often until the last minute, which players play where and when. It’s easy to pick the wrong court and miss a match of significance. Again, I was just happy to be there.
More tickets in hand, I was finally ready to line up to enter the Magic Box, but not before having my temperature taken, identity confirmed, and generally being shuffled along from one scary-looking security person to another. These guys take their jobs very seriously. Inside, I was awed by the size, or, rather, the height of the main halls and what turned out to be access (i.e. stairs) to the upper levels where I was sitting. Word of advice: if you want to see tennis but have bad knees, spend the extra money for super expensive seats because the elevator will take you to them. If you don’t, you will have to climb the stairs, a lot of stairs. Fortunately I have been getting lots of exercise over the last few months and stairs are no longer as daunting as they used to be. Still, it was quite the climb.
Once inside, and a little early, I had time to take it all in. I was very impressed by the stadium and the court itself; both are very large, something that made me worry that I wouldn’t be able to see very well. I remembered that Nadal-Almagro match in Barcelona when Ori and I sat way, way at the top of the flimsy temporary seats (while it was raining and very cold and windy, I might add), straining to see through the umbrellas and heads of the people below us. I do believe I was even higher than that here but, strangely enough, it didn’t feel that bad. Being dry and in the shade also helped, of course. There also weren’t nearly as many people present, the organizers being quite good at keeping the attendance limited and with plenty of space between pairs (or groups) of spectators.
The first match was a women’s quarterfinal (the WTA starts their part of the tournament a little earlier than the ATP) between Aryna Sabalenka and Elise Mertens, my one and only women’s match. Not being a fan of either player, I spent most of my time just enjoying being there rather than paying attention to the game. Yes, yes, I watched it, but other than the fact that Mertens retired in the second set, I can’t tell you much more about it. I would have loved to see Iga Świątek play, but by then she had already lost to Ash Barty in the 3rd round. I haven’t been following the WTA much in the last few years (thanks TSN), but now that Iga has come on the scene, and a bunch of young women who are very exciting to watch (Osaka, Gauff, Sakkari, and a few others), not to mention my access to their matches thanks to Amazon Prime UK, I’m sure I will be paying more attention in the future. For now, I was happy to see that the match finished relatively early reducing my stress of leaving on time to beat the curfew.
With only about 20 minutes between matches, the one I was excited to see was about to start. Stefanos Tsitsipas is definitely one of the rising stars in men’s tennis and being able to watch him in person was awesome. The fact that his very handsome father, Apostolos, was also present sweetened the deal even more. The man Stefanos came to play was none other than Benôit Paire, one of the more enigmatic Frenchmen on the tour, so I figured I was in for a treat. Unfortunately for me, however, Paire didn’t come to play much. For a man with so much talent, it is frustrating to see him be so unpredictable and, on occasion, quite blasé about his chosen profession. He lost 6-1, 6-2 so, really, it was no contest. After the match I tried to get closer down to check out Mr Tsitsipas Sr but I was way too high still. Damn those cheap seats.
I left La Caja Mágica happy but slightly underwhelmed: the women’s match was cut short by an injury and the men’s was terribly one-sided. On the other hand, however, I did get to see one of my favourite players (and his dad), and, most importantly, it was a beautiful summer-like evening in Madrid and I was going home without a care in the world (i.e. not worrying about the curfew). I did have to pay attention to the metro directions and got a little tangled up at Sol where I switched trains, but in the end emerged at my station, Tribunal, only to have all my senses assaulted by the activity in the area. There were so many people still out hanging around and in the various bars and restaurants, quite a few of them with patrons spilling out into the streets. After the locked down València and sleepy little Dénia, this was quite a different experience altogether. I just hoped I could get to sleep, processing all the excitement of the day was going to take a bit, and I was going back for more the next day! Life is good.
