In 1953, Carlos Godó Valls, founder of the Conde de Godó Trophy, stipulated that one of the main objectives of the competition was to attract the best tennis players in the world so that the fans could see them in action. That goal was met from the start. Vic Seixas, the first winner of the competition, was proclaimed champion days later on the Wimbledon grass. In fact, 11 of the 16 champions in Barcelona between 1953 and 1970 were also Grand Slam champions.
But the 1970s were pivotal for the sport of professional tennis. With the Open era installed, with amateurs and professionals competing with each other, a determining factor in sport also appeared: television. Thanks to the successes in the Davis Cup on the talismanic court of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona (RCTB), Spanish tennis had seen the birth of a knowledgeable and eager fan base, not only to see the great tennis players of the moment live, but also to follow them through the 625 lines in the best world competitions. Tennis players, like most elite athletes, became media stars thanks to television.
The organization of the Conde de Godó Trophy, aware of the importance of their coming to Barcelona in order to maintain the status of a major international competition, managed to attract them. His effort was rewarded with some stands full of fans enthusiastic about the show that was offered to them.
Along with the national heroes embodied in Manolo Santana and Manuel Orantes, the names of the Romanian Ilie Nastase, champion in 1973 and 1974, the Swede Björn Borg, winner in 1975 and 1977, the Czechoslovakian Ivan Lendl, winner in 1980 and 1982, and the Swedish Mats Wilander, who achieved the treble of victories between 1982 and 1984, were the most successful in Barcelona. Other illustrious figures such as the Argentine Guillermo Vilas, a four-time finalist between 1980 and 1983, the American Eddie Dibbs, the Slovakian Miloslav Mecír, the Hungarian Balász Taróczy, the Italian Adriano Panatta or the Mexican Raúl Ramírez were also admired by the fans.
Barcelona, like other major European tournaments on clay, was left without seeing the two great American players of the time, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, in the Conde de Godó Trophy, allergic to the effort and adaptation necessary to compete in the Red clay.
From each of these stars, the fans were looking for something different. They expected to see the two faces of Nastase, that of the sublime tennis player and that of the disrespectful. They admired the Borg's youth, serenity, and devastating efficiency; with Lendl they were enthusiastic about his athletic quality and his powerful punches, and with Wilander with his ability to concentrate.
And that communion between tennis players, tournament and show was reflected in other details. In 1975, the competition's press office broke the record for accredited press. Without counting the entire television operation, a total of 120 journalists, with a large group of Anglo-Saxons and French, covered the details of the tournament.
In 1977, the expectation to witness the final between Manuel Orantes and Björn Borg was so high that a group of fans broke the rear wall of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona facilities to watch the match without going through the box office. In 1980, seats were sold out in two of the seven days of the tournament, especially the final that pitted the Czech Ivan Lendl against the Argentine Vilas.
In 1981, in view of the high demand for tickets, the club renovated most of the structure of the Center Court stands, while installing new stands on courts 1 and 2. In 1982, to further strengthen the good relations with the players, a specialized medical center was set up with two masseurs. The prize money of the Conde de Godó Trophy rose to $265,000 in 1983. The prize received by Mats Wilander as champion was $32,000, while the tennis players who lost in the first round received $800 and the champions in the doubles event, the Swedes Hans Simonsson and Anders Jarryd shared 12,000.
In 1984, television images of the competition were edited for the first time to produce a highlights program that was distributed to all the world's television stations and agencies. In 1985, the circuit supervisor's report highlighted the excellent organization of the tournament and noted that the Conde de Godó Trophy sets an example in terms of hospitality and that it has the best restaurant service for players on the entire circuit.
With this it was evident that the presence of great players such as Borg, Orantes, Nastase, Lendl, Wilander, Vilas and a long list of names was important and vital for the tournament and the fans, but that the tournament was revealed to improve year after year. year in all the details that made their stay in Barcelona more pleasant.
With this consolidation of the tournament among the essential events on the world circuit, the big bet was reached once, in 1990, the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) took sole command on the international circuit, and an era of maximum requirement. The RCTB responded to these new demands with brilliant management by Sixte Cambra, the tournament director, who in 1987 secured the future after an agreement with the IMG company.
