Madrid's Tie Break Tens featured big stars, bigger smiles

Tennis in Madrid means playing inside the box, literally, in the grand La Caja Magica stadium. Although blue clay was a bust in 2012, the Tie Break Tens exhibition was a hit, filled with big points and lots of smiles. It even featured an overdue clay-court appearance by the popular replay computer Hawkeye.

Eight stars from the ATP and eight from the WTA participated in single-elimination 10-point tiebreakers, with a winner-takes-all prize of $250,000 on the line.

Madison Keys, Garbine Muguruza, Johanna Konta and Maria Sharapova were eliminated in the first round, while Rio gold medalist Monica Puig and Agnieszka Radwanska fell short in the semifinals.

During the course of four hours, players sat together like high school chums, snapping selfies and catching up.

Anything can happen with in a tiebreaker, but who would have thought Stan Wawrinka would get whitewashed 10-1 by eventual finalist Feliciano Lopez? Dan Evans, Lucas Pouille and Jack Sock also fell in their openers.

On the other hand, Simona Halep played with aggressive efficiency.

The sublime shot of the day was a backhand defensive stab by finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova that sailed over the net and landed like a butterfly.

Men’s champion Grigor Dimitrov looked more like his Australian Open semifinalist self after staving off a match point in his first contest with Evans. He stayed both poised and aggressive throughout the evening.

Soon after the Dimitrov-Sharapova photos were plastered all over social media, the Bulgarian closed out his championship run by serving four consecutive aces in a 10-7 win over Lopez.

Women’s Tie Break Tens champions and the defending Madrid champion Halep was strong with every stroke and invested with her footwork. She’s embracing each opportunity to compete in her quest to play bigger and better.

Halep and Dimitrov took home the unique gold balloon animal trophies and $250,000 each, and they donated $50,000 apiece to charities.

Will they keep the momentum going when the real tournament kicks off next week? A little success anywhere can only bolster their chances.