Two teams, led by the Castellón Roberto Bautista (nº12 of the World Ranking) and the Asturian Pablo Carreño (nº25) will dispute, From the 10th to the 12th of this month, the inaugural tournament of the Liga MAPFRE, which was presented today Tuesday at the Municipal Tennis Center of the Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, which will be the scene of the event.
The competition organized by the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) has the collaboration of the Catalan Tennis Federation (FCT), which offered the Olympic facility to host the tournament originally planned in the Club Tennis Lleida, and that he had to move after learning about the confinement of the city due to an outbreak of COVID-19.
The teams will be made up of four players each and together with Bautista and Carreño they will be Albert Ramos (nº 41), Pablo Andújar (53), Alejandro Davidovich (97), Roberto Carballés (99), Jaume A. Munar (105) and Pedro Martínez Portero (106).
“From the Federation we needed to give activity to the players who had been unemployed for many months by the COVID-19. These are tournaments that will make them enter competition before the start of the international circuit”, explained the president of the RFET, Miguel Díaz, who has thanked the support received from the Catalan.
The president of the FCT, Jordi Tamayo, has ensured that: “We wanted this first tournament to return to the new normality in Catalonia, because at the tennis level it is that cradle that we want to continue promoting. We have been able to adapt in an agile way so that our fans have the opportunity to see the best rackets in Spanish tennis here. “
They have accompanied them the RSports egidor of the Barcelona City Council, David Escudé; the Territorial Representative of Sports and Physical Activity of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Barcelona, Pere Vilà; and the President of the Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya (UFEC), Gerard Esteva.
The tournament will have strict measures to guarantee the health safety of the participating players -who will pass a previous PCR control-, work staff and spectators. The temperature will be taken for all people who access the premises.
The authorized capacity will be about 1,000 spectators maximum, located alternately in the stands, The seats and all the elements of the track will be disinfected daily and the use of masks in the stands will be mandatory. Prices range between 10 and 50 euros of the subscription for the three days of competition.
The two numbers one will choose the members of their team alternately on Thursday, July 9, one day before the start of the test. Three individual matches and one doubles match will be played each day. The matches on the first day will give 1 point, those on the second day 2 points and those on the third day 3.
The singles will be played from 17 hours, one followed by another, the best of three sets. The doubles team will have a gold point and a super tie-break in the third set in case of a tie.
Chair tennis tournament
Coinciding with the men's tournament for Top-100 players, there will also be a competition for tenis in chair with the presence of the 6 best Spanish players in the specialty.
The vigo Martin de la Puente, No. 13 in the world, heads the participation with the Madrid native Daniel Caverzaschi (No. 22). They will accompany you on Barcelona's Francesc Tur, Enrique Siscar from Murcia, Cisco García from Córdoba and Arturo Montes from Seville.
The MAPFRE League is a competition created by the RFET for the best national tennis players to prepare for their return to the ATP circuit after the break by COVID-19. You will face two teams of 4 players in each of the 3 scheduled tournaments. The other two will take place in Valencia (July 17-19) and Avilés (July 24-26).
In addition to the men's circuit and chair tennis, the MAPFRE Tennis League cIt will also have a women's circuit and a men's “Valor” circuit for players from the Top-100, with 3 tournaments each.