Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro—What it is; what it isn't; who's playing

If Rafael Nadal fails to win next week’s Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro, a video-game edition of the Spanish clay-court tournament, his title as the King of Clay title is safe with me.

But if Rafa roars through the competition like Pac-Man scarfs down Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, I say we add Prince of Pixels to his list of monikers.

There is nothing to lose when it comes to this coronavirus-inspired electronic event, both for the marquee attraction and the tennis world at large. The MMOVP is, at a literal level, the first time we’ll see tennis competition on an international scale since early March. Is it tennis competition as we knew it before the pandemic? No, of course not. But it won’t be during the many forthcoming events held around the world, either.

In a sense, the MMOVP will be tennis’ version of the NFL Draft—a prestigous event stripped of all its usual fanfare and execution because of COVID-19. There were hiccups and gaffes during Thursday night’s first-round broadcast on ESPN, and it felt strange to longtime viewers. But eventually, the first-ever virtual football draft became familiar all its own.

Feliciano Lopez, tournament director of the actual Mutua Madrid Open, hopes something similar will happen next week.

“We’ve had a great response from all the players,” Lopez said in a press release. “From the first moment when the initiative was conceived, they were prepared to help. It’s the first virtual tournament. It’ll be a fantastic tournament, the bar is high, the players are ready and it’s certainly going to be spectacular.”

The list of entrants reads like the latter stages of an ATP Masters or WTA Premier event. Along with Nadal, the following players will begin playing matches on April 27 using the PlayStation 4 game Tennis World Tour:

**Group 1: Rafael Nadal, Gael Monfils, Denis Shapovalov, Andy Murray

Group 2: Dominic Thiem, Diego Schwartzman, John Isner, David Ferrer

Group 3: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori, Frances Tiafoe

Group 4: Alexander Zverev, David Goffin, Karen Khachanov, Lucas Pouille**

The WTA side includes more star power:

**Group 1: Karolina Pliskova, Belinda Bencic, Fiona Ferro, Carla Suarez Navarro

Group 2: Elena Svitolina, Johanna Konta, Victoria Azarenka, Sorana Cirstea

Group 3: Bianca Andreescu, Madison Keys, Kristina Mladenovic, Caroline Wozniacki

Group 4: Kiki Bertens, Angelique Kerber, Donna Vekic, Eugenie Bouchard**

WATCH THE MUTUA MADRID OPEN VIRTUAL PRO DRAW:

Both the men’s and women’s tournaments will commence on Monday at 9 a.m. ET, and will be streamed live on TENNIS.com. Two players will advance from each round-robin group; the finals will be held on Thursday, April 31. Each champion will receive €150,000, to be distributed to players who are struggling financially due to the pandemic as per the winner’s discretion.

In the 2000s, the Madrid tournament was held on indoor hard courts. In the 2010s, it moved to outdoor clay—and, for one year, blue clay—in the Caja Magica, one of the most modern venues in all of tennis. If there was any event whose tournament director would tout its temporary move to a surface that doesn’t really exist at all, wouldn’t be Madrid?