Andy Murray and Lucas Pouille are first announced Virtual Madrid Open players

Tennis Masters tournament Madrid Open was scheduled to be held from 1-10 May but is not going to happen, since the tennis season is on hold and all professional tennis has been cancelled until at least 13 July. Instead, tournament organizers in Madrid decided to follow the steps of some organizations from other sports - they will organize esports tennis event.

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Set to be held from between 27 and 30 April,  Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro will see real-life tennis stars competing from their own homes. The official game of the tournament is Tennis World Tour, and 32 invited players will compete - 16 from WTA and 16 from ATP.  Both tournaments (ATP and WTA) will include prize money of â‚¬150,000, from which the winners will be able to decide on how much they donate to the tennis players currently suffering financially from the lack of tennis events, which was their only income. An additional €50,000 will all go directly towards reducing the social impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The first two ATP players have been announced today, and amongst them is Scottish tennis star Andy Murray, former World No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam champion. Murray is known on tour as an avid gamer, so he's probably amongst the favourites to win even on the virtual court. The second player is French Lucas Pouille, last year's Australian Open semifinalist.

More players will be announced in the coming weeks.