Roberto Bautista and Pablo Carreño, numbers 12 and 25 of the world, will be the leaders of the two teams that will meet in the first stop of the new MAPFRE League Tennis, to be held at the Lleida Tennis Club of the July 10 to 12.
A competition devised by the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) so that the best national tennis players can shoot, after the break by COVID-19 before the ATP circuit starts on August 14 in Washington. The rest of the players confirmed for the premiere are Albert Ramos, Pablo Andújar, Roberto Carballés, Alejandro Davidovich, Jaume Munar and Pedro Martínez Portero.
Teledeporte will broadcast five games from each of the three appointments. The next ones will be at the Valencia Tennis Club (July 17, 18 and 19) and at the Avilés Royal Tennis Club (July 24, 25 and 26), with the same competition format. There will always be at least five top-100 tennis players. Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano López They will also participate in some of the tests.
After the cascade of contagions on the Novak Djokovic Adria Tour, the MAPFRE League will take extreme measures of security. There will be an audience in the stands (the number must still be confirmed by the Generalitat), but with mandatory use of masks and all attendees will go through a thermographic arch that will control access to the club and that allows to capture the temperature of up to 30 people in a distance of four meters with a margin of error of 0.3%.
José Luis Solans, president of CT Lleida, highlights that the club has opted “for prevention, safety and health.” “CT Lleida is a fortress against the coronavirus and will offer all guarantees during the tournament, both for players and for spectators,” he explained.
Competition system
The two numbers one, Bautista and Carreño, will choose the components of his 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 individual matches will be played from 5 pm, one after the other, the best of 3 sets with a super tie-break in the third set in case of a tie. The doubles will have a gold point.
MAPFRE Chair Tennis League
In parallel, the MAPFRE Chair Tennis League will be played in the morning, with the presence of the six best national specialists: Martín de la Puente, Daniel Caverzaschi, Quico Tur, Kike Siscar, Cisco García and Arturo Montes.
In addition to the men's circuit and chair tennis, the MAPFRE Tennis League will also have a women's circuit three tournaments, and a men's 'Valor' circuit for players from the Top-100.