Madrid: Trungelliti furious, insults and shouts at some spectators

The first-round duel at the Mutua Madrid Open 2026 between young Spaniard Daniel Mérida and Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti will remain in the memory of Caja Mágica spectators for a long time, and not only for the final result.

Played on Thursday on a packed Court 3, the match was interrupted for about five minutes because of a highly tense episode. In the third set, with the score at 5-5, the Argentine lost patience with the behavior of some Spanish fans. The noise had become unbearable: a couple of “rude” spectators were using a whistle and shouting, creating an atmosphere so rowdy that it impeded the normal course of play. Trungelliti, visibly exasperated, first complained several times to the chair judge and the supervisor, without getting the hoped-for intervention. At that point he decided to take a resounding stand: he sat on the edge of the rink and declared that under those conditions he would not continue to play, then approached the grandstand where the two fans in question were seated.

His blaring calls aimed directly at the audience (“come on down!”) echoed throughout the grandstand. At one point, tournament security personnel intervened, while the player called the spectators “cowards.” After several tense minutes, the match resumed.

For Trungelliti, it was a special match: the Argentine had entered the main draw as a lucky loser after losing to Mérida just a few days earlier in the last round of qualifying. The young 20-year-old Spaniard, on the other hand, was experiencing his debut in the main draw of a Masters 1000 in front of his home crowd. In the end it was Dani Mérida who prevailed in a real battle that ended in three sets.

At the end of the match, the Madrid-based tennis player made emotional statements, “It was an incredible battle. I have to thank the audience because they were a constant support throughout the match. The victory is as much mine as it is those who came to push me. In the last points, when I had no more, I leaned on them. I was nervous, so was my team, and people lived every exchange as if they were on the court with me. It was a combination of emotions: being one millimeter away from losing the ball and then turning it all around completely changes things. This win gives me a lot of confidence for the next round, and I’m so excited to be able to play here in Madrid again.”