It is played on clay courts at the Caja Mágica in Manzanares Park, San Fermín, and is held in late April and early May.

The event moved outdoors to Park Manzanares, where a new complex with a retractable-roof equipped main court was constructed, the Caja Magica.

[6] By December of the same year, it was announced that Tiriac sold the event to IMG, which is now the new organizer and has already planned an expansion of courts, including a new stadium for over 10,000 people, to be built by partly draining the lake circling Caja Magica.

Some speculated that the adaptation of blue colour was a nod to the titular sponsor of the tournament, the Spanish insurance giant Mutua Madrileña.

[10] On 1 December 2011, Țiriac confirmed that the blue clay surface was officially approved for the 2012 edition of the tournament, in both the ATP and WTA circuits.

[11] However, after the event took place in 2012, threats of future boycotts from some players, especially Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic (who both lost on the blue surface), led the tournament to return to the traditional red clay for the 2013 season.