Feliciano López says the Mutua Madrid Open is preparing for its 25th edition in 2026 with a new roofed stadium that will add about 8,000 seats and push the tournament into what he called its final major phase of growth. The director said Madrid is also pioneering a co-directorship in which a man and a woman share the work, with Garbiñe Muguruza joining the project.
López said the move comes as the tournament has already run for 24 years and has become one of the most established stops on the tennis calendar in Spain and beyond. He said around 30% of spectators come from abroad and that the event has kept its focus on giving fans more than tennis alone, with a broader day-out experience inside the Caja Mágica.
The new stadium is the biggest change yet for an event that already has three roofed stadiums, making it one of only two tournaments in the world with that setup, along with Australia. The Arancha Sánchez Vicario stadium holds 3,500 people, and López said the new build will be the ceiling for the site because space is so limited.
“I think we can’t improve much more,” López said, adding that when the stadium is finished, “we will touch the sky.” He also said he has had a very good relationship with Muguruza, underlining that Madrid’s co-directorship is not just symbolic but part of how the tournament wants to work going forward.
The tension is in the scale of the ambition. The Madrid Open has grown steadily since its start in 2001, but the latest expansion appears to be the last big structural change the venue can absorb. With Madrid Open 2026 set to arrive on April 21 and top names including Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic expected to miss the event, the tournament is leaning on infrastructure, not star power, to sell its next chapter.