The Madrid Masters are now clay events, but in their early years, they existed as hard-court masters.
The inaugural Madrid Masters began in 2002 and until 2008, seven tournaments were played on hard courts until 2009, when they became clay events.
Coincidentally, the winners of these seven tournaments belong to seven different champions. Today, let's review which players have lifted the cup on these seven hard courts?
2002: Agassi
The last laugh in the inaugural tournament was Agassi, the king of the time. In that stormy era, although Agassi was not the person who won the most Grand Slam titles, he had the most titles in the Masters field.
2003: Ferrero
The second champion belonged to ferrero, then the world's number one, who is also the head coach of today's popular fried chicken Alcaraz. His opponent in the final was none other than Thiem's current head coach, Chilean Masu.
2004: Safin
The Russian tsar has also made a name for himself in the history of the tournament, and his opponent in the final was the Argentine Nalbandian.
2005: Nadal
The five-time winner Nadal was the most successful male player in the history of the tournament, but his first title was not easy to come by.
When facing Federer's current coach, Lyubishic, Nadal fell behind in two sets and finally completed a stunning reversal of two chases and three.
2006: Federer
Compared to the grains of monte carlo and the Rome Masters, Federer's memories in Madrid are undoubtedly much better. He has been crowned three times in history.
His first title came in 2006, when he faced The Chilean gun Gonzalez and won the title in three straight sets.
2007: Nalbandian
This is probably the highest gold medal in the history of the Madrid Masters, for no other reason than that – the same tournament beat the world's top three giants at the time to win the championship! Such a record can be said to be a shock to the ancient and modern.
2008: Murray
This year's Madrid Masters issued wild cards to former champion Murray Murray caused a lot of uproar, in fact, the Briton's Madrid experience is still very good.
In addition to beating Frenchman Simon in 2008 to win the title, he also reached the final back-to-back in 2015-2016, winning a good result of one championship and one runner-up.
As the defending champion, Zverev has already doubled in the competition. This year, can he shake off his juxtaposition of Murray (two crowns) and align himself with the Big Three? (Source: Tennis House Author: Luo ChengQiye)