Posted on by Willem

Monday/ tennis, in La Caja Mágica

The Magic Box (“La Caja Mágica”) was designed by French architect Dominique Perrault. (Also design by him: the François Mitterrand National Library in Paris).
The Magic Box opened in May 2009 at a cost of some US $300 million. The main moving roof is 101m x 72m x 4m (surface area of 7250 sq m/ 78,100 sq ft). The architect used very slender steel columns and trusses in the design. Horizontal trusses in the roof sections help to resist wind forces.

The 2022 Madrid Open tennis tournament is under way, in the multipurpose stadium complex called La Caja Mágica.
During the Madrid Open, it is the only facility in the world with three tennis courts under a retractable roof.

This year, the top Men’s Singles seeds are ‘No Vax’ Djokovic, Sacha Zverev, Rafael Nadal (the ‘King of Clay’), Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev— but no Medvedev (he had hernia surgery), Carlos Alcaraz and Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime.

The entrance lobby to the center court named for Manolo Santana, Madrid native and world No 1 as an amateur in 1965. He had passed away last December at age 83. 
[Still from Tennis TV]
It was a rainy day, so the roof was closed today. This is a first-round match between two Grand Slam champions Andy Murray (Scotland, 34) and Dominic Thiem (Austria, 28). Thiem is recently back from an injury to a ligament in his wrist. (He did not need surgery). Murray won 6-3, 6-4.
[Still from Tennis TV]

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