The Madrid Open used blue clay courts for its 2012 edition (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
PARIS – Madrid is making a bold move in the ongoing conversation about expanding the tennis calendar: It doesn’t just want a Grand Slam—it wants something even bigger. While the Italian Tennis Federation (FIT) is campaigning to host a fifth Grand Slam by merging the Rome and Madrid calendar slots, Madrid’s longtime tournament chief has his sights set higher.
“Why limit ourselves to a Grand Slam? I want a Super Slam,” said Gerard Tsobanian, president and CEO of the Madrid Open, in an exclusive interview with RG Media and CLAY during Roland Garros.
The concept of a “Super Slam” is not fully defined, but Tsobanian believes the traditional format of the sport needs a serious rethink.
“We’ve invented a lot of things in tennis. If there’s an idea, why not listen to it?” he said.
“It’s more than just more prize money, more points, or fewer players. I don’t think the 128-player draw is something that will last forever; I don’t think it’s the best solution. Fans want to see rivalries between the best players as quickly as possible. They don’t want matches with a huge imbalance between players. We want to get to the weekend of a Grand Slam quickly, because that’s when the interesting matches start. Things have sped up; people have less patience or less time. There’s more variety and more activities happening at once. Tennis has to adapt. That’s why I think we should shorten matches and get to the drama quicker.”
He suggested that innovations like the four-game sets used in the Next Gen Finals could find their way into Madrid’s future. “Yes, I think you have to create a slightly shorter dynamic, like in golf. Playing 18 holes is a long time, and young people don’t have the patience nowadays. They like shorter, more intense sports. The same goes for tennis. You have to try not to make matches too long. You have to get to the moment of drama or the end more quickly. That’s why they’re trying out cutting matches to four games in Next Gen,” he explained.
A Return to Blue Clay?
Another part of Tsobanian’s bold vision is the potential return of one of the sport’s most controversial innovations: blue clay. Introduced in Madrid in 2012, it caused uproar among players and was quickly abandoned. But Tsobanian says it could come back—if done right.
“It’s not a dead idea,” he said. “Blue was very good, but there was bad luck, bad practice, bad preparation. The drainage wasn’t right, and that created issues. Next time, we’ll prepare it properly and implement it step by step.”
When asked if the clay would still be blue, he smiled. “I liked the blue.”
Rivalry with Rome
Behind the scenes, tensions have grown with Italy’s tennis leadership. The FIT attempted to buy the Madrid tournament’s two calendar weeks, hoping to merge them with the Rome Masters and build a month-long event that could claim Grand Slam status.
But Tsobanian was clear: “No, they’re not going to buy it. They’re no longer candidates.”
He also questioned the very logic of the move. “Why would a federation buy a tournament outside its own country? That’s not a normal investment. It’s not a fund trying to grow an event—it’s something else entirely. It raises a lot of doubts about their intentions.”
The sale of the Madrid tournament is ongoing, as IMG, its current owner, looks to offload assets. But Tsobanian insists the event will stay put. “The tournament has already been sold before. And where are we now? In Madrid,” he said.
He also dismissed the idea of moving the tournament, as Ion Tiriac did when he relocated it from Stuttgart in 2002. “No. This isn’t that,” he said firmly.
Who Decides a Grand Slam?
Tsobanian is both direct and humorous when discussing the politics of adding a fifth Grand Slam to the tennis calendar.
“How are they going to combine the two weeks? Make a month-long tournament? Who decides that? The first question is, who do you ask for permission to create a fifth Grand Slam? Who do you talk to? I’m telling you, since no one has said whether I should talk to me, my sister, my mother, or God, I guess you have to talk to God, the God of tennis, because the other God has much more important things to do. And we don’t know who the God of tennis is. He hasn’t even left a phone number. If the God of tennis finally gave us his phone number or an email address—or if we could find him…”
Despite the jokes, his tone carries urgency. Tsobanian believes tennis needs innovation to thrive. “The 128-player draw won’t last forever. We need to find new ways to keep the sport relevant. The weekend of a Slam is great—but we can’t make fans wait all week to enjoy it.”
Madrid has always played by its own rules. It was the first to introduce blue clay. It welcomed a younger, more experimental crowd to tennis. And now, Tsobanian wants it to lead the sport into a new era.
With bold ideas, a clear voice, and a taste for innovation, Tsobanian isn’t asking for permission—he’s demanding a conversation. “Let’s talk. Let’s invent. Let’s change tennis.”
For Madrid, the future isn’t about joining the tennis elite. It’s about rewriting the rules altogether.
Journalist. Founder of CLAY, a global tennis media platform. More than 70 Grand Slams covered during a 35-year journalistic career. He is the former Sports Editor of the German news agency DPA and the Argentine newspaper La Nación. He has reported on every FIFA World Cup since 1998 and every Olympic Games since 1996.
He is the author of 'Ni rey ni dios' and 'Messiánico', biographies of Lionel Messi, and 'Sin red', a decade-long journey following Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, as well as 'Gracias', a biography of Nadal.
Correspondent for Spanish newspaper El Mundo in South America, he co-chaired the International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA), an organization that gathers the 100 most influential tennis journalists in the world, and is currently a board member. He was also Editor-in-Chief of Around the Rings, a site focused on high-level sports politics.
