Rafael Nadal, Frances Tiafoe slide onto virtual red clay for Madrid Open - on PlayStation 4

It's Nadal's virtual game. And it's something Tiafoe hopes to pounce on as one of 32 players who will compete in the Virtual Madrid Open, the first virtual tennis tournament to be contested by pros - in this case, as an alternative to the fixture of the European clay-court season that often serves as a bellwether for the French Open.

The novel coronavirus pandemic upended the tennis calendar, and it brought sporting events worldwide to a halt in mid-March. Rather than simply forgo the Madrid Open this year, as the All England Club ultimately did with Wimbledon, organizers are staging a four-day virtual contest with real prize money and a charitable component to help those affected by the pandemic in Madrid and benefit lower-ranked players who have been without income since the men's and women's pro tours were suspended.

Nadal, 33, spearheaded earlier relief efforts for his native Spain, which is among the European countries hardest hit by the pandemic, and he was quick to sign up. He's joined by fellow top-10 players Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, as well as Tiafoe and former world No. 1 Andy Murray in the 16-player men's field. The women's field includes American Madison Keys, third-ranked Karolina Pliskova and former top-ranked players Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.

"It's wild," said Tiafoe, 22, who lost to Nadal in straight sets in the round of 16 at the 2019 Madrid Open, in a telephone interview this week. "It's really outside the box!"

Tiafoe has been sequestered the past two months in his Washington-area apartment, not far from College Park's Junior Tennis Champions Center, where he and his twin brother, Franklin, learned the game.

He has passed the time by trying to stay fit - doing core exercises, taking shadow swings at cones and running sprints in his complex's vast garage - as well as streaming shows and checking on his mother, who lives nearby.

Since he received a PlayStation 4 in the mail from Virtual Madrid Open organizers last week, Tiafoe also has been gearing up for Monday's start of round-robin play with Franklin, who's the more adept gamer.

"He's helping me with what buttons to press to win points," Frances Tiafoe explained.

It was during this stretch that Tiafoe joined roughly 40,000 tennis fans worldwide in logging on for Nadal's recent Instagram Live chat with friend and rival Roger Federer. Nadal, holed up in his home in Mallorca, hosted the chat.

But the most entertaining part came at the outset, when viewers were treated to a rarely seen side of Nadal - hopelessly lost and utterly bewildered by how an Instagram host adds a guest to his chat. As viewers watched the silent seconds slide by, Nadal peered at his screen, hunting for the right icon to tap. He arched an eyebrow, leaned in even closer and furrowed his brow.

"This man is not easy to find!" an exasperated Nadal said of Federer, who was waiting somewhere in cyberspace, logged on from his home in Switzerland, where he, his wife and their four children are spending the shutdown.

Finally, Federer's face appeared, and the Swiss was cracking up over Nadal's ordeal, along with viewers including Tiafoe.

Asked how he thought he will fare against Nadal in the Virtual Madrid Open, Tiafoe said: "If he's as bad at the game as he was at Instagram . . . that was pretty funny! So that would be pretty interesting! But it would be pretty funny if he ends up being unbelievable at the game as well."

Other sports have been experimenting with virtual alternatives to hold fans' attention and give athletes a competitive outlet during the shutdown. NASCAR's iRacing Pro Invitational Series has fast become must-watch programming for ardent stock-car racing fans drawn by the quality of the simulation - sophisticated enough for many professional drivers to use as a training tool - and the rare peek inside drivers' homes and temperaments, for better or worse.

Unlike NASCAR's virtual series, the Virtual Madrid Open isn't designed to fill the void until professional tennis resumes - currently, no sooner than July 13. It's a one-off, akin to the recent showdown between Alex Ovechkin and Wayne Gretzky in "NHL 20," which was also staged as a benefit for coronavirus relief.

The 32 participating players received their PlayStation 4 and copy of Tennis World Tour by mail this week. They also were emailed a two-page summary of the tournament's format, rules and prize-money breakdown.

It will open with round-robin play: 16 men and 16 women split into four groups of four. Play begins Monday and Tuesday. The top eight advance to the quarterfinals Wednesday, with semifinals and finals contested Thursday.

Each draw has roughly $162,000 in prize money. One third of that will go toward coronavirus relief in Madrid. The men's and women's champions will decide how much of the remaining prize money is donated to help lower-ranked players through an assistance fund that's being administered by the tours.

Apart from playing Wii tennis when he was a child, this is the first time Tiafoe has played a tennis video game. And he's "pumped" that he is actually a character in Tennis World Tour - with a computer-generated look that meets his approval.

"They did a good job!" Tiafoe said. "Looks like it's one of my 2018 outfits."

As for the game itself, the simulation isn't nearly as sophisticated as iRacing, and it got lukewarm to poor reviews when it was rushed into production in 2018.

As Tiafoe explains, competitors select their shots by hitting certain buttons on the controller: "X" for flat shots, "O" for topspin, others for a slice or lob. There are also buttons that control where players move and at what speed.

Tiafoe has practiced only in simulated matches on hard courts. He won't know until Monday how the game works on the simulated red clay of the Madrid Open's simulated Manolo Santana Stadium.

"We'll see if my character can slide," he said.

With his brother giving him tips, Tiafoe had practiced against the game's computer-generated Nadal, Federer and John Isner. But he hasn't faced a real pro.

"I'm wondering how good the other guys are and how hard they've been practicing," Tiafoe mused. "We'll see the level once the tournament starts next week."