Tsonga Embraces Tennis History In Madrid

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Mutua Madrid Open – Madrid, Spain

Spanish tennis legends Manolo Santana, the tournament director, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, and Manuel Orantes were honoured in an on-court ceremony Tuesday, commemorating their inscription into the tournament’s Hall of Fame. The event was attended by Rafael Nadal, International Tennis Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin and Spanish greats, including Albert Costa, Alberto Berasategui and Alex Corretja.

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga paid homage to the history of the game by taking a tour of the Hall of Fame. View Photos

With the help of Rafael Nadal, Feliciano Lopez and Marat Safin, €55,000 was raised to help Syrian refugees through UNHCR (The UN agency for refugees), CEAR (Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid), UNICEF and Mensajeros de la Paz. In a fun hour of exhibition tennis, two teams of tennis stars and celebrities entertained the fans on Court Manolo Santana. Read & Watch

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic joined an illustrious group of recipients, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Pele, Johan Cruyff, Lionel Messi, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in receiving the prestigious Marca Leyenda (Marca Legend) award. Read

With help from a host of spectators and ATP World Tour stars Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Mutua Madrid Open made history on Sunday morning by setting a new Guinness World Record for the most people bouncing tennis balls on racquets at the same time for 10 seconds. Read & Watch

Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco joined Genie Bouchard for a cooking class on site, while Juan Monaco helped out with the draw ceremony. Watch Video/View Photo

Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker, Manolo Santana, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Pablo Cuevas, Joao Sousa and Bruno Soares attended the Players’ Party at Platea Market in Madrid. Watch Video

Taylor Fritz enjoyed a visit to the home of Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (View Photo) and returned on Wednesday to watch the Champions League semi-final (View Photo)

A few players even tried their hand at paddle tennis at Caja Magica, including Sam Querrey (View Photo), Djokovic and his younger brother Marko Djokovic (View Photo).