Yahoo Sports Madrid Open will be played as a video game event amid coronavirus postponement
Tennis stars can’t play at the Madrid Open in May due to the coronavirus, so they are doing the next best thing: Turning the event into a video-game tournament and donating a portion of the winnings.
The Madrid Open announced the news in a statement Monday. It promises the “world’s biggest tennis stars” will take place in the tournament.
The Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro will take place over four days, from 27 to 30 April, in a show of solidarity to raise money and help the tennis players most in need during this time, all those that have no income to help them through these months of inactivity, and those affected by Covid-19.
The event will consist of both a women’s and men’s tournament. Sixteen players will take part in each bracket. There will be a purse of 150,000 euros ($163,000) in each tournament. The winners of the tournaments “will be able to decide on how much they donate to the tennis players currently suffering economically, and an additional 50,000 euros that will all go towards reducing the social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” according to the Madrid Open.
With live sports at a standstill, a few sports leagues have turned to video games to fill the time. That’s exactly what’s going on in the NBA, where stars are squaring off against each other in an “NBA 2K20” tournament.
The Madrid Open has not released a list of which “tennis stars” will take part in the event yet, but are expected to unveil that information soon.
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