Hey tennis fans! We finally have some tennis. After two long months of absolutely nothing on the docket, we’re going to see our favorite tennis players get after it in Madrid from 27 to 30 April. Well, virtual Madrid that is. Feliciano Lopez, the lovable Tournament Director for the Mutua Madrid Open has transitioned this year’s tournament to a virtual set up.

Basically, top players will be playing their little avatars from the video game Tennis World Tour. Except Andy Murray unfortunately. During an Instagram live with Rafa he mentioned that he doesn’t have an avatar in the new game because of his absence from the tour! No worries though, Andy mentioned that he’ll be playing as Rafa during the tournament. So, aside from Andy and Rafa, who’s playing?

The following superstars have been confirmed for both the women and men’s events: Alexander Zverev, Diego Schwartzman, David Goffin, Karen Khachanov, John Isner, Gael Monfils and Fabio Fognini for the men and Elina Svitolina, Johanna Konta, Victoria Azarenka, Genie Bouchard, Madison Keys, Angie Kerber, and Kristina Mladenovic for the women. That’s quite a participation list. Mutua Madrid will be revealing more participants in the coming days.

Let’s talk about the format and make some predictions!

There’s going to be a men’s draw and a women’s draw consisting of 16 players divided into four groups. Eight will then qualify for the quarterfinals. As for prize money, there will be 150,000 euros in each draw and the winners can decide on how much to donate to lower ranked tennis players currently suffering from the shutdown. I imagine they will be donating all of the winnings given how much has been written about how the stoppage is affecting the lower ranked players.

So, who are the favorites?

For this tournament, I’m definitely not going for Rafa Nadal. During his Instagram live, he admitted that he has just started practicing on the game. Andy Murray seems to be more in tune with the video game. I recently saw Genie Bouchard open and hook up her brand new Playstation on her Instagram account, so I’m not expecting anything there.

My favorites for both the men and women’s draw are Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina. I’ve been following these to lovebirds for months on Instagram, and they are routinely gaming. Although, I’ve seen them mostly playing some FIFA, I’m confident they know their way around this game and beat all comers!

Like always, don’t forget to jump on to the TennisPAL app to stay up to date on tennis news, find groups of friends to play with, and get a virtual coach to help with your tennis game!