Live sport is back, for those who like to see the glass as half-full, with professional tennis stars Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Karolina Pliskova among the players swapping their rackets for PS4 controllers this week. As they would in a normal calendar year, all are vying for glory on the famous clay of The Caja Mágica in Spain - but there's a difference in that this year's tournament is purely digital. Here's how to watch the Madrid Open Virtual Pro online and stream it for free from anywhere in the world today.
The virtual Madrid Open is being held April 24-27 and gameplay starts at 2pm BST/3pm CEST - or 9am ET/6am PT in the US each day.
The tournament will be played on PlayStation 4's Tennis World Tour, with both the men's and the women's draw featuring 16 players, divided into four groups of four. The virtual Madrid Open will start off as a round-robin, after which the winner and runner-up from each group progresses to the quarter-finals - when it adopts the more familiar look of a knockout competition.
Matches are provisionally being scheduled in at 15 minute intervals, so it's worth quickly checking out even if you don't have that much time on your hands.
Group 1 is surely the group of death in the men's draw, featuring not only Britain's Andy Murray and 'home' favourite Rafael Nadal, but Benoit Paire and Denis Shapovalov as well. Nadal eeked out a thriller on the first day, beating Shapovalov 4-3(3) . UK favourite Murray also proved effective with a controller in hand, defeating Paire 3-1.
On the women's side, group 2 looks particularly fierce, with world number five Elina Svitolina joined by British fan favourite Johanna Konta, former Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka and Romania's Sorana Cirstea.
Given the dearth of actual sport due to the coronavirus, this is an event not to be missed - day one even gave us a Nadal injury scare, just like in real life! Here's how to watch the virtual Madrid Open tennis and stream it online no matter where you are in the world right now.
How to watch a Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro live stream from anywhere in the world
Watching the virtual Madrid Open tennis this week is easy, as it's being live streamed exclusively on Facebook Gaming. It'll go live on the Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro's Facebook page at the designated start time (2pm BST/3pm CEST/9am ET) - or RSVP your interest here and you'll be given a notification when it's time to start watching.
The one catch is that Facebook isn't available in a number of countries, most usually due to government internet restrictions. Where this is the case, you could consider using a VPN.
This handy bit of software changes your IP address so that you can access content, websites and services from anywhere in the world. Just be mindful of local laws where you and consider if watching other people play video games is really worth a run in with the the authorities.
Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro: men's singles draw
Group 1
Rafael Nadal
Gael Monfils
Denis Shapovalov
Andy Murray
Group 2
Dominic Thiem
Diego Schwartzman
John Isner
David Ferrer
Group 3
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Fabio Fognini
Kei Nishikori
Frances Tiafoe
Group 4
Alexander Zverev
David Goffin
Karen Khachanov
Lucas Pouille
Virtual Madrid Open: women's singles draw
Karolina Pliskova
Belinda Bencic
Fiona Ferro
Carla Suárez
Group 2
Elina Svitolina
Johanna Konta
Victoria Azarenka
Sorana Cirstea
Group 3
Bianca Andreescu
Madison Keys
Kristina Mladenovic
Caroline Wozniacki
Group 4
Kiki Bertens
Angelique Kerber
Donna Vekic
Eugenie Bouchard
