The Mutua Madrid Open inaugurates its training court at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium

The Mutua Madrid Open, a Masters 1000 category tournament for men and WTA 1000 for women, has inaugurated its training court at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, “one of the most emblematic facilities in the world” and the scene of “innumerable sporting feats”, now converted into “an eternal icon for the city.”

This is how the organization of the tennis tournament described it this Thursday after an event attended by Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid; Emilio Butragueño, director of Madrid Institutional Relations; Gerard Tsobanian, CEO of the Mutua Madrid Open itself; Garbiñe Muguruza and Feliciano López, co-directors of the contest; and Andrea Gaudenzi, president of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP).

The former Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal also participated in the company of the Italian Jannik Sinner and the Polish Iga Swiatek, both players still active, along with the Englishman Jude Bellingham, the Belgian Thibaut Courtois and the Colombian Linda Caicedo, all three soccer players from the merengue team, who also played on the clay installed in the stadium.

The track will be available until April 30 “so that the big stars of the ATP and WTA circuits can enjoy the experience of training in one of the great temples of world sport,” according to the organization in its press release. “In addition, the players will be able to use the Real Madrid locker rooms,” said that statement.

“This initiative represents a historic step for the tournament, for the city of Madrid and for the stadium itself. Bringing a clay court to one of the most emblematic venues in the world means creating a unique meeting point between the tradition of tennis and the universal dimension of a stage that is transformed to continue surprising with new experiences,” the same press release underlined.

The arrival of the Mutua Madrid Open to the Bernabéu, according to that note, “also reinforces Madrid’s capacity to host innovative proposals of global reach, integrating two great symbols of the city.” “On the one hand, one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments on the international circuit. On the other, a legendary venue, whose history transcends football and which has also established itself as the venue for top-level sporting and leisure events,” the text added.

“Thanks to this type of initiatives, the Bernabéu demonstrates its capacity to host new sports, entertainment and gastronomic experiences due to its possibilities of adaptation to the standards of the most demanding projects in the world,” said the organizers of the Mutua Madrid Open.

They then stressed that installing a clay court at the Bernabéu “not only responds to an operational need for the players, who will have a new training space fully integrated into the dynamics of the tournament, but also projects a powerful image of Madrid as a capital capable of reinventing its major sporting venues and connecting them with each other.”

“Because the Bernabéu is not only a stadium; it is a symbol. A place associated with great deeds, historic endings and moments that have marked generations. Incorporating it into the universe of the Mutua Madrid Open during those days means placing tennis within one of the most recognizable and iconic enclaves of world sport and entertainment,” the press release insisted.

The initiative will allow “living a unique experience in the heart of Madrid, expanding the event preparation spaces and adding an extraordinary emotional and symbolic component to your participation in the tournament,” according to the note. “Training in a setting of this magnitude, accustomed to receiving historical events, will turn each session into something more than a competitive routine: into an image of enormous strength for tennis and for the city,” said the same text.

“The Mutua Madrid Open once again demonstrates its vocation for innovation, its international ambition and its ability to generate differential projects that transcend strictly sports. The installation of this court at the Bernabéu will, without a doubt, be one of the great images of the 2026 edition of the tournament. The clay entering one of the most universal temples of sport,” the press text concluded.