Pilar Carbonell, General Manager Emotion Sports Spain, reveals the behind-the-scenes of the ATP 250 Mallorca Championships in Calvià, the only grass tournament held in Southern Europe.
The crowd filled the stands of the Mallorca Championships 2023. Photo: Emotion Spain.
If a world-class player like Nick Kyrgios asks in the middle of a tournament to be provided with a hair product urgently, it’s time to search high and low for it. “I didn’t even know what it was and it turns out it wasn’t sold in Mallorca. I bought it online and it arrived within 24 hours. The player was delighted,” recalls the Mallorcan executive. The organisation of any major sporting event “is an accumulation of small assembled pieces where it is just as important to get everything right as it is to cover up what goes wrong so that the experience for the spectators and players is unforgettable,” emphasises Carbonell.
The numbers for the fourth edition of the ATP 250 Mallorca Championships, which will be held between 22nd and 29th June, are dizzying: A budget of 4 million euros, plus 900,000 euros in prizes and live broadcasting to 167 countries, in addition to the thousands of enthusiastic fans from all over the world who flock to Calvià. It is also the only official tournament on the annual men’s grass tour that takes place in southern Europe, and has already attracted top tennis stars such as Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem.
Innovative vision
Pilar Carbonell poses with Spanish tennis player Feliciano López. Photo: Emotion Spain.
The decision to hold a tennis tournament in Mallorca stems from the innovative vision of the CEO and founder of Emotion, Edwin Weindorfer, an Austrian in love with the island who made a risky bet on grass, a common surface in northern Europe. “He thought it would be an attractive alternative for all those tennis players who wanted to prepare for Wimbledon under sunny and warm conditions,” explains Carbonell.
When Emotion took over the reins at Mallorca Country Club Santa Ponça in 2016, it wanted to do things in a big way, reaching a partnership agreement with Wimbledon’s iconic All England Tennis Club, the ‘Cathedral of Tennis’. Its five courts are Wimbledon-approved and even the grass is exclusive to London. “A few weeks before the tournament, technicians from Wimbledon come here to carry out very exhaustive checks,” says Carbonell. All kinds of measurements are taken: the state of the roots, the depth of the grass and its height, among others.
A year-round effort
“For a one-week event we work throughout the year. The most important thing is the search for sponsors without whom we could not succeed, as well as the recruitment of players, for which we have the invaluable help of the sports director Toni Nadal,” says the Mallorcan executive. Playing in the heart of the Mediterranean is the main ‘hook’, “as we can’t afford to pay the fees of top players like Alcaraz, who can go for 600,000 euros,” she adds. In parallel, the monumental tasks of publicity, organisation, logistics and infrastructure (for example, the stands are set up and dismantled for the tournament) are carried out, as well as the coordination of a team of 1,000 people.
The first step in bringing a men’s circuit tournament to Mallorca was to obtain the ATP licence, a task that is becoming increasingly complicated due to the constant threat of petrodollars. “In Mallorca we are not aware of the luxury of having an official licence,” says Carbonell. The international impact for the Mallorca brand is “immeasurable,” he stresses. For the time being, the tournament will remain on the island until 2026.
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