The Mutua Madrileña is staged every year in Madrid Spain. The tournament lures 64 players on both the men’s and women’s singles competitions and 32 pairs slugging out in the doubles event. Categorized as ATP World Tour Masters 1,000, the event is played on the clay court surface. The tournament dangles € 2,835,000 as its total cash purse at stake.

The tournament made a glamorous debut last May 9, 2010 in its impressive new stadium, the new Box Tennis in Madrid Spain. According to the Mayor of Madrid the venue is perhaps “one of the best sporting facilities in the world which will definitively reinforce Madrid’s status as a great global tennis capital.”

This year favorites includes past winners like the world number 1 ranked player and the winner of the event in the 2006 and 2009 Roger Federer of Australia, Spanish clay court specialist Rafael Nadal who reigned in 2005 and the 2008 winner Andy Murray of Great Britain. In the distaff side women’s world number 1 ranked Venus Williams of the United States is tipped to win in the women’s side of the tournament. The first-seeded tandem of the Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Daniel Nestor of Yugoslavia is the team to beat in the doubles event.

Top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland continues to live up to his billing as the world’s number one ranked player as well as the tournament’s defending champion as he waylaid David Ferrer of Spain 7-5, 3-6 and 6-3 to earn one of the finals berth at stake in the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, an event which is classified as an ATP World Tour 1000. The win averted what could have been an all-Spanish match up in the finals as Rafael Nadal the number three ranked player in the world already advanced to the finals after subduing compatriot Nicolas Almagro 4-6, 6-2 and 6-2 in the other semifinal match.

The Mutua Madrileña humble beginnings started in Stockholm, Sweden in 1990. The tournament continued in flourished here until 1994. The event was transferred to Essen, Germany in 1995. The tournament shifted to its new home in Stuttgart which is also located in Germany from 1996 to 2001. Alas, the tournament moved to Madrid Spain in 2003 to 2008 at Madrid Arena.

Major changes was implemented starting from 1990 up to 2008 where the surface played was held on indoor hardcourts in Madrid. In 2009 however the type of surface played was changed into clay and the venue moved again to Park Manzanares. Also on the same year, the tournament for the first time includes the women’s singles event.

The events played in the tournament since 1990 are the men’s singles and doubles and the new introduced event is truly a welcome development and timely. The playing venue of the tournament for this year’s tournament is held at the Box Tennis, in Madrid Spain.http://www.tennisearth.com/tournament/Mutua-Madrilena-Masters-Madrid-74.htm

Boris Becker of Germany won four singles titles in the tournament, which is still unbroken until now, and the same record number of championships Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde won in the doubles event of the tournament.