It did not take long for the reactions of the Spanish tennis players to arrive after the announcement by the Mutua Madrid Open of their wild cards for 2022.
Players invited to the tournament
Fernando Verdasco has expressed through his social networks his disappointment at the invitations distributed by the organization of the Mutua Madrid Open. The man from Madrid has complained about the distribution of the wild cards and he does not consider them fair, especially in the main draw. You can see the presence of many international tennis players but little Spanish presence. Verdasco calls for the presence of local tennis players and compares it to the tournament in Rome that takes place the following week.
Other tennis players have been quick to jump on the bandwagon. Among them the most outstanding has been Paula Badosa who has agreed with the Madrilenian, arguing her great tournament in Madrid thanks to a wild card. Spanish tennis for both men and women is going through a historic moment. There are many players who have been left at the gates of being able to participate.
IMPORTANT NOTE ⬇️???????? pic.twitter.com/t5iJwnmvrE
– Fernando Verdasco (@FerVerdasco) April 20, 2022
The words of Fernando Verdasco
«Before the announcement today of the Mutua Madrid Open regarding the invitations that they are going to offer for this year’s tournament, many Spanish players cannot help but give our opinion on the matter. We find it surprising, as well as very frustrating, that the biggest tennis event in Spain shows so little (or no) support for Spanish tennis players with the invitations given, especially to the main draws.
We do not understand that the promoting company and the tournament owners have found the criteria to give these invitations reasonable. We understand that some of them give them at their own discretion, but not that in all of them their commercial interests prevail over Spanish sport and totally deviate from the path followed in previous years. We have many tennis players who have been left out of the gates to participate, and have been ignored in their requests to receive an invitation.
If we look at any other tournament in the same category, the support shown to local tennis players is immensely higher. Without going any further, the tournament in Rome the week after the one in Madrid, has already announced its first five invitations, and all of them are for Italian tennis players.
We fully trust that the main sponsors of the tournament, including the Madrid City Council, Mutua madrileña and Spanish companies (as well as the Spanish sports federations and mostly national spectators), want to support Spanish tennis and invest in this tournament with the intention of helping our sport. and hoping to see the greatest possible Spanish presence, so we imagine our disappointment and hope that they will show it as well.
We felt that it was very important to communicate how sad we are at not being able to play in our country and to make known the situation that has deprived us of that opportunity.
Thank you very much to all of you who have asked us and shown your support since the moment you saw this news.
