With the central court packed, on a day as special as Sant Jordi, and culminating a week of great tennis, intense social life, and passion in the stands, the Conde de Godó Trophy closes its 70th anniversary this Sunday, already working for the next edition in which the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona will celebrate its 125th anniversary.
The competition will close this last decade in which Rafael Nadal expanded his list of successes to the impossible, managing, in 2021, to lift the Conde de Godó Trophy for the twelfth time. Under this dominance of the undisputed king of Barcelona, ​​Spanish tennis continued to demonstrate its hegemony on the RCTB courts with the fourth final in 2011 by the current sports director of the tournament, David Ferrer, the finals reached by Nicolás Almagro (2013) and Pablo Andújar ( 2015) and the entirely local final of the last edition of the tournament in which Carlos Alcaraz, the new pearl of world tennis, beat Pablo Carreño.
Likewise, in the doubles event, in a new demonstration of the tennis gene of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, ​​Marc López and Marcel Granollers reached the final in 2012, and Marc himself, teaming up with Feliciano López, won the competition in 2018. In this edition, a record stage in the history of the tournament has also closed with the 22nd appearance in the individual draw of Feliciano López.
Another important aspect at the level of organization and dimension of the tournament was overcoming the cancellation of the competition in 2020 due to COVID, and especially starting the tournament in 2021 still under the effects of the pandemic with a unprecedented organizational effort.
With the pandemic crisis over, the competition is still more alive than ever. On the sporting front, the presence in Barcelona of the so-called Next Gen tennis players who are called to take over from the great champions has been consolidated. The creation of an under-14 competition, of which Carlos Alcaraz was champion, also reaffirms the tournament’s commitment to being a mirror for the youngest.
Aspects such as adaptation to new technologies and communication challenges with fans, and especially the constant efforts to improve year on the great challenges of sustainability, also mark the future agenda.
In the global calculation off the track, the massive response from the public that has sold out the tickets, the connection of social life in the hospitality area, and the contribution of the tournament to the international legacy of the city of Barcelona, ​​augur a long and successful life to the competition created in 1953 by Carlos Godó Valls, Count of Godó, and president of the RCTB.
