Alcaraz and the Wimbledon miracle of the tennis player from Spain, the country without grass courts

Carlos Alcaraz is playing in his third consecutive Wimbledon final , a tournament in which he will defend his two-time championship against Jannik Sinner this Sunday. He will do so on a surface where he has more titles (four) than defeats (three), and which is impossible to find in Spain . There are only six courts across Spain, and all of them are in Mallorca.

The Mallorca Championship is an ATP 250 event that celebrated its fifth edition in June. "We previously had the Mallorca Open for women only, but we've made a change. At e|motion Group, we were eager to bring grass to Spain because we already had experience hosting another tournament in Stuttgart ," says Edwin Weindorfer , CEO of the tournament organizer, e|motion Group.

The Balearic Islands venue is the only one that currently has grass courts. In 1994, an initiative emerged in Aravaca, the capital, at the Real Club de Tenis López-Maeso. It was led by José López-Maeso, a Spanish tennis player who was part of the national Davis Cup team . His goal was to have Wimbledon champions train on his court, but it met with little success.

The initiative was followed by Villanueva Golf in El Puerto de Santa María, which opened three natural grass courts in 2024 , although it also lasted a short time. "We were eager to get a grass court. We already had the equipment, and it was a marketing ploy to add value to the resort . I saw that they didn't exist in Spain, and we decided to build them. We almost won an ATP Challenger," explains Oliver Günter , the project's brainchild.

Complicated maintenance

"I spoke with the people at Wimbledon to find out how we should do the maintenance, which was very similar, although with slight differences, given that the weather conditions in Cádiz were very different from those in London ," Günther continues.

London has also had an influence from Mallorca. "Maintenance is extremely difficult, but we have certified Wimbledon grass. Tournament officials come every two or three months to conduct tests . The turf isn't actually the same, but rather an adapted seed because the climate is different," Weindorfer explains.

Günter says: "The wear and tear on the grass is tremendous. In England, it opens in May and closes in October. Then they do maintenance in the winter, while we did it the other way around : we kept it open to the warm climate of Cádiz. We cut it lower if there was a championship. If not, it was kept higher."

The courts where the ATP 250 is held offer members the option to play on them. "The grass is in worse condition after the tournament, but its use is permitted until the end of June. Then we let it die and reseed it when the hot weather has passed, usually in October . A month before the tournament, it cannot be used by members."

More and more players are using the courts to prepare for Wimbledon. This year, in fact, Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek trained there. The weather conditions are better than in the United Kingdom, although this year the temperatures on the island were very high. "We suffered seeing the players in such heat," says Weindorfer.

The Balearic tournament dreams of reaching the ATP 500, but they see it as a difficult prospect at the moment. "It's a matter of waiting for someone to sell their license. The cost and maintenance would be higher." In the meantime, at least there's a glimmer of grass court play in Spain. A country that can boast Wimbledon champions despite the difficulties in accessing a court of this quality.