TMS - MADRID

October 17, 2005

Pedro Nunez

Manolo Santana

MANOLO SANTANA: Good morning. First of all, welcome to this presentation. As you all know, we have several activities in our tournament, but the most important of all is that we have agreements with the Royal Tennis Spanish Federation, as well as Madrid's Federation, as you can all understand. Within this Federation, the most important thing is that they provide us several benefits like contacts with clubs, and the mailings, that the Federation does helps us. We do think honestly that we are granting something to Spanish tennis and to the Spanish Federation because it is a great event. We complement each other. For me, it's a pleasure to present to you Pedro Munoz, the president of the Federation. He has already been vice president of the Spanish Federation and has been working as he thinks he must. We want to support the Federation all we can, so we do hope the Federation supports us, too. We want to thank you for your attendance here. We would like to answer any questions about the agreement you may have. I think the good atmosphere between the Federation and ourselves has already been proven. We want to show him our facilities and the level of the tournament. So thanks to you all. We'll listen to the president at this point.

PEDRO MUNOZ: Thank you, Manolo. Welcome to the tournament. Manolo has defined the tournament perfectly. It was a dream. We all wanted the Federation to support and to be present within the promotional events of the tournament. Because the Masters Series Madrid is already a promotional event to our sport right now, we need to take advantage of this. I think this agreement allows events and actions to take place. Not only this, but also to open a new path towards the future through which we move forward together and we help to promote tennis. I'm not sure if it's in the agreement, but there's already conversations about holding new tournaments which could be sponsored by our Federation. In this sense, I want to thank Manolo and the tournament itself for the confidence shown towards the Federation. I'm sincere right now. If I'm telling you this, it's because it's true. I think the Masters Series is even ahead of the Federation in this sense. You know me, and you know I'm sincere. So thanks again to the tournament, to the organization. Thanks for your confidence and for this agreement which allows us to improve tennis. Thank you all. Now let us sign the agreement.

MANOLO SANTANA: It's signed (showing document).

PEDRO MUNOZ: Manolo, who has been more clever than myself, wanted to give me fewer papers.

PEDRO MUNOZ: Well, it's a full change in all aspects. As you may understand, the first year the Masters Series was announced, I saw the opportunity to launch Spanish tennis and Madrid's tennis, but things couldn't work at that time. I did what I thought was correct at the moment. This is a professional tournament, as you all know. I needed to know the tournament. I needed to be sure. The first year obviously one is not conscience of the importance of a Federation. The first year I didn't want a box for myself or anything. Tiriac actually offered me money for the Federation, but that was not the point. The point was to enter into a feeling of collaboration. That's been the change I've gone through.

PEDRO MUNOZ: I think it was a magnificent meeting. It's not a false triumph I announce here. I think it's been a meeting that has helped us know each other better. We talked about the global project. It was an opportunity for them to know me personally. It was a thoughtful meeting, where I explained my point of view and my last decisions. I have also learned about players because in this job, you do not go to a meeting with the attitude of, "I'm the best, I know all." In this sense, I've improved a lot. I went to the meeting to explain and understand. I also learned from them. I need to keep in mind a lot of my aspects with my relationship with them. I am very satisfied with their attitude and their behavior.

MANOLO SANTANA: I thank you for your words. Whenever I travel to other tournaments, I try to see how they develop, what's their evolution, so that we can improve our tournament as well every year. This tournament, as you know, is considered in Europe as the third tournament in terms of importance worldwide indoors. Indoors, there's no other tournament that can compare to this one. As you know, Tiriac has agreements with the town hall of Madrid, is to bring a combined tournament to Spain, men and women. That's what we wish to do in the future. If that project progresses, that tournament would be enough. We need to do something about women's tennis because the crowd and you yourself, the press, need to know we're fighting to bring women's tennis here to Madrid. It is important to have success in this tournament towards that end. As you see, we have many Spaniards, many good tennis players, and that helps the tournament, too. Women are not as high in Spanish tennis, so now we need to promote men's tennis and then women's tennis. Men's tennis is a support. An important event would help women's tennis. I don't know what would need to happen so that next year we had a Spanish woman player playing well. If we cannot reach the project we want to reach for a combined circuit, we would try to bring a tournament, as Shanghai. Our goal is to have men and women playing here in Madrid. Maybe last year it was separate, but I hope next year, the year afterwards, it is a combined event. That's our goal. Our aim is to consolidate this tournament, to sign the agreements between Tiriac and the town hall to keep our men's tournament and to bring women's. I think that would be an enormous support to Spanish tennis and to the Federation and to women's tennis in general.

MANOLO SANTANA: Well, I guess it's like Hamburg. Because of the way they do things, I want to go there and see what they're doing, how they're working. But what we need to do is consolidate the tournament here in Madrid. There's tournaments that maybe face difficulties to continue, maybe Hamburg, but we are not one of those. I think we are already in a strong position in Madrid. The difficulties in the tournament in Stuttgart, Tiriac knows we overcame those difficulties. To consolidate Madrid would be fantastic. If you have no more questions, thank you all for being here. Thank you, Pedro, for having ratified this agreement we started at the beginning of the year. I think we're on the right path of collaboration between the tournament and the Federation. Thank you all.