Madrid Open Draws Record Total Crowd Of 260,228; Final On TVE Draws 2.6 Million

This year's Madrid Open "broke all the event's attendance records," according to Fernando M. Carreño of MARCA. From May 5 through Sunday, a total of 260,228 fans attended matches, an increase of 15,568 from '16 and more than 38,000 more than the event drew in '15. Madrid Open Dir Manolo Santana said, "Sincerely, we believed it was going to be very difficult to surpass last year's tournament, when we celebrated our 15th anniversary. However, I can proudly say that during the last 10 days we have been able to show the world that we have one of the best tournaments on the circuit." The final between Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem "was also the most-watched tennis match on TVE since May '13." Nadal's victory attracted an audience of 2.6 million, which translated to a market share of 20.7% (MARCA, 5/15).