Attendance at the fifteenth anniversary of the Mutua Madrid Open was a resounding success. The presence of the best players in the world, from both the ATP and WTA tours, helped make the event the epicentre of national and international sport from 29 April to 8 May.
A total of 244,660 spectators visited the facility to enjoy the world’s best tennis players on the Caja Mágica clay, which is an increase of 23,274 spectators compared to 2015 and of more than 43,000 spectators compared to 2014.
The greatest attendance came on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, days on which the biggest stars played their openers and on which the last sixteen in the ATP competition and the quarter-finals in the WTA tournament took place. The event’s grand finale was another of the highlights, with the Manolo Santana stadium packed to the rafters to watch the men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
Tournament director Manolo Santana (who today celebrates his 78th birthday) was very satisfied at the end of the tournament’s fifteenth anniversary. “Hearing about this attendance statistic is the best birthday present possible. I was delighted to see the court full for the finals, but I am even happier to see that we sold almost all the tickets for the first days. This means that the people are not just coming to see Nadal or Djokovic, but that they are also coming to enjoy the event and the talent of the great players that come to Madrid every year. But we are never satisfied and now it is time to work hard and get even more people to come next year”.
One of the tournament’s biggest achievements came on Sunday 1 May, when the Mutua Madrid Open made history by setting a Guinness World Record for the most people bouncing tennis balls on tennis racquets at the same time for ten seconds. The Madrid tournament doubled the number set by the China Open last year, managing 1,474 people, a new Guinness World Record.
