Romanian billionaire and former tennis player Ion Ţiriac has reached an in-principle agreement with the Madrid City Hall to keep the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament in the Spanish capital until 2031, Capital reported, quoting Spanish media.

This June, Ţiriac, the owner of the Madrid Open, set several conditions to keep the tournament in Spain’s capital past 2021. Among them were the building of a 10,000-seater outdoor court at the Caja Magica, a multi-purpose stadium in Madrid, and help from the municipality to increase the prize money by 30%, tennisworldusa.org reported.

Ţiriac could gain EUR 81 million in between 2021 and 2031 from the tournament, Capital reported.

The Mutua Madrid Open is classified as an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the Women's Tennis Association tour.

Ţiriac is Romania’s richest, with a fortune of USD 1.2 billion. He holds a minority stake in Allianz-Tiriac, one of the biggest local insurers. He also owns the Tiriac Holding, a group of companies with operations in car retail, real estate and energy, among others, and the license of the Madrid tennis open.

(Photo: Mutua Madrid Open Facebook Page)

editor@romania-insider.com