Action at the Madrid Open is soon to get underway for the 2025 tournament where both the ATP and WTA Tours will feature.
Last year saw Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek play the best match of 2024 in the final, as announced in the year-end WTA awards.
They are set to be the top seeds in the Spanish capital once again, but there are some concerns about Carlos Alcaraz after suffering an issue in the Barcelona Open final.
Despite these doubts over Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic is confirmed to return in Madrid for the first time in three years.
Although main draw action at the Madrid Open has not got underway yet, they have already received heavy criticism after announcing the wildcards for the men’s tournament.
Tennis fans slam the Madrid Open and Feliciano Lopez for wildcard decision
Last month, Spanish player and former world number 17 Albert Ramos-Vinolas announced that he would be retiring.
While he has not yet said where his retirement tournament would be, the 37-year-old confirmed that it would be at some point in 2025.
With it being the final chance for Ramos-Vinolas to compete at the biggest tournament in his country, the Madrid Open, it was expected that he would receive a wildcard.
IMG, the company who own the Madrid Open, were reportedly planning to award Ramos-Vinolas the wildcard, but instead elected to give it to 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic instead.
The other wildcards have been given to Pablo Carreno Busta, and young players that IMG represent including Martin Landaluce, Coleman Wong and Federico Cina.
There has been a big reaction to this decision, with tournament director and former world number 12 Feliciano Lopez receiving heavy criticism for snubbing compatriot Ramos-Vinolas.
One fan said on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Feliciano Lopez’s ability to do absolutely everything to p*** people off is outstanding.”
Another called for Lopez to resign, “You thought you could blame everyone else and get away with it, but you’re the most guilty of all. Resign for good and stop ruining a tournament unique to the Spanish people @feliciano_lopez.”
While it appears that Cilic was the player to get the wildcard over Ramos-Vinolas, some people believe that other players should have been left out over the retiring Spaniard.
“Coleman Wong getting a WC over Ramos Vinolas is ridiculous.”
The questions over this decision continued, “It’s very difficult to understand this decision by tournament management. Even more so considering that IMG had agreed to grant Albert the wildcard.”
While this is the biggest tennis tournament in Spain, even people from the country have admitted that they struggle to support this event.
“It’s impossible for me to feel proud of this tournament, really…”
An additional social media user simply added, “This is a disgrace.”
Feliciano Lopez’s other controversies at the Madrid Open
This is not the first time that the Madrid Open and Lopez have been caught up in controversy in recent years.
At the 2023 tournament, Lopez received heavy backlash and were accused of offering preferential treatment to men’s players.
This came as a result of there being no speeches allowed for players in the women’s doubles final, despite the men’s doubles players being allowed to.
Many players had their say on this including Ons Jabeur, who spoke up about other issues she had noticed at the Madrid Open.
“The way they treat women here and men, they’re completely different,” Jabeur told reporters last year. “Maybe people from outside, they don’t see it. I’m definitely one of the people that I want to speak up.
“Here in Spain, I would love to go to the hotel and open the TV and see a woman’s tennis match. I haven’t seen once one tennis match of a woman. Obviously, I understand there are a lot of Spanish (male players) playing, but asking for one match? Even the female Spanish (players) they are not even showing.
“For me it’s really frustrating to see that. How can you inspire young girls without showing any match in that?”
The WTA main draw at the Madrid Open gets underway on Tuesday April 22, with the men’s draw following on Wednesday April 23.
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