The Shanghai Rolex Masters is an annual, outdoor hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Shanghai, China is an annual, outdoor hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Shanghai, China. The event is a part of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and is held annually in October at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Shanghai, China. The inaugural tournament took place between 11th October and 18th October 2009. In its inaugural year, the tournament was awarded as ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year, by the players themselves. Rolex has decided that it will continue its partnership with the Shanghai Masters as the Title sponsor of the event this year.

Shanghai has hosted the year ending tournament- Tennis Masters Cup five times, since 2002. The successful organization of Tennis Masters Cup reflected thoughtful services and splendid matches; and finally in April 2007, ATP and Shanghai sealed the deal that gave Shanghai, the rights to host the only Masters 1000 event outside Europe and North America. This meant that more than 100 professional tennis players displayed their skills in a 9-day thrilling event.

This is the only Masters 1000 event that takes place in Asia, thus the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 can be termed as a flagship event on the new Asia swing, as mentioned by the ATP in 2009, including other Asian tournaments like Bangkok, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai.

Tournament facts –

Venue - Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Shanghai, China
Surface – Hard, DecoTurf
Men’s Singles – 56 singles
Men’s Doubles – 24 pairs
Courts – There are in all 25 tennis courts in the Qi Zhong tennis complex. The main court can hold around 15,000 spectators whereas a new Grand Stand Court 2 with a capacity of 5,000 people has also been built.
Past Winner – Nikolay Davydenko, this was the inaugural tournament in which Rafael Nadal was the runner-up
Tournament – 10th to 17th October 2010.

The Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open is an annual clay-court tennis tournament which is held in Madrid, Spain. The event boasts of world’s best male and female tennis players, and the tournament is classified as ATP World Tour Masters 1000 for men and a Premier Mandatory event on women’s circuit. The old “Masters Series de Madrid”, began back in 2002 and there has never been a same winner since then.

In August 2007, ATP and WTA Tour confirmed Madrid as the combined tournament for men and women, making it the only event in Europe in the mini Grand Slam category. With more than 7 million Euros to be won, the event plays host to some of the best tennis stars of the world. The tournament will be played at “La Caja Mágica” also known as The Magic Box, state-of- the art clay courts. The Mayor described the venue as one of the best sporting facilities in the world which will portray Madrid as a great global tennis capital.

Tournament facts –

Venue – Park Manzanares, Madrid, Spain.
Surface – Clay / Outdoors
Tournament Director – Manolo Santana
Men’s Singles – 56 players
Women’s Singles – 60 players
Men’s Doubles – 24 pairs
Women’s Doubles – 28 pairs
Courts – There are 4 tennis courts at the venue and 2 training courts. The Manolo Santana is the center court with capacity of 12,500 persons.
Winner of most Men’s Singles titles – Roger Federer – 2 titles
Winner of most Women’s Singles titles – Dinara Safina – 1 title.
Next Tournament – May 2, 2011.
Past Winners – Aravane Rezaï

The BNP Paribas Open is an annual hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Indian Wells, California. Many people consider it as “The Grand Slam of the West”, and this event is the fifth most-attended tournament next to Grand Slams. The event is first of the nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and showcases the best men’s and women’s players. This is a Premier Mandatory event on the Women’s tour.

Held annually at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, it is a state of art stadium which boasts of 16,000 seats and is the fourth largest stadium in the world. It is one of the world’s most beautiful venu es for watching the competition of world’s top professionals. This can be demonstrated from the fact that in 2009, the event saw a crowd of 332,498 people in a 12 day tournament. This was a record turnout as in 2007; the tournament had an attendance of 300,000 making it the best attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slams. The tournament was called by different names throughout; when it began in 1974 it was called as American Airlines Tennis Games.

Tournament Facts –

Venue – Indian Wells Tennis Garden
Surface – Hard / Outdoors
Official Ball – Penn
Men’s Singles – 96 players
Women’s Singles – 96 players
Men’s Doubles – 32 pairs
Women’s Doubles – 32 pairs
Courts – There are 20 tennis courts at the venue.
Winner of most Men’s Singles titles - Jimmy Connors, Michael Chang, and Roger Federer – 3 titles each.
Winner of most Women’s Singles titles – Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Mary Joe Fernández, Lindsay Davenport, Daniela Hantuchova and Kim Clijsters – 2 titles each.
Next Tournament -March 7, 2011
Past Winners – Jelena Janković