How the Barcelona Open has built a Spanish dynasty

With all due respect to the Madrid Masters, the Barcelona Open is the true seat of Spanish power. It’s a level 500 tournament that is a delight for the home country but a landscape of clay-court purgatory for even the mightiest foreign stars that dare to cross the Pyrenees Mountains and steal away a coveted trophy.

The identity of Spanish dominance is everywhere, defined most of all by the tournament’s unusual tribute to name center court after living legend Rafael Nadal.

Nadal was the star attraction all week, and he justified that by winning his 10th career title at Barcelona with a straight-sets win over Dominic Thiem, following his unprecedented conquest of 10 titles at the Monte Carlo Masters last week.

And if Nadal’s awesome presence isn’t enough to overwhelm aspiring titlists, competitors know they must face an onslaught of heavy Spanish topspin on slow red clay. They must vie against several home country players who receive palpable support from the partisan fans. It’s like walking into a pit of vipers with a plastic fork.

Consider that not a single American player took part in either the qualifying or main draw. Why bother when the surface, venue and degree of difficulty for a non-mandatory venue underscores the futility of one clay-court title in the past 14 years at any venue?

The identity of this “Spanish Open” has Open era roots that connect to compatriot champions Manuel Orantes and Manual Santana, as well as clay-court legends like Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl through the 1980s.

It nurtured the rise of Spanish hegemony in the 1990s with native sons like two-time French Open winner (1993-‘94) Sergi Bruguera, Carlos Costa and 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya.

The grip of the Spanish dynasty really began in 1997 with the first of 17 consecutive years that featured a Spaniard in the final. Nine of those years pitted two Spaniards in each final, and they took home 14 of the 17 possible trophies.

The only recent blip on Barcelona’s Spanish dominance occurred when Japan’s Kei Nishikori snapped 11 straight years of Spanish titles by winning both events in 2014-‘15. It was hardly a coincidence that Nadal had begun a relative decline.

In 2016, Nadal’s renaissance started when he won Monte Carlo and restored Spanish honor by defeating Nishikori in the final.

The ATP tour will soon shift to Madrid, and Roland Garros, but the heart of Spanish clay-court tennis is no bigger than Barcelona.