Paris Masters: The French tennis tournament envisioned by cyclists
If you are a tennis follower, you would know that the Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic is always in the news for one thing or another. Turns out, recently, Djokovic was back in limelight when he started this ongoing season of the Paris Masters with an exemplary win. This defending champion of the tournament beat American Maxime Cressy and is now on his way to win the 39th Masters title, a record in itself.
Are you wondering what we are wondering? What exactly is Paris Masters? After all, it’s not part of the top Grand Slams such as Wimbledon, Australian Open, US Open and French Open. So, where exactly does it stand? Well, let’s get right into it.
Birth and evolution of Paris Masters
As the name suggests, Paris Masters is held in the French capital Paris every year. It is a big-league tennis tournament for professionals and is part of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Tour Masters 1000 initiative (comprising of nine tennis tournaments). Okay, but when did it all start?
Well, that would be in 1969. Paris Masters was born when cyclists performing in a six-day cycling event got introduced to the famous French Covered Court (Open) Championships, that was happening in a nearby court.
In case you were wondering what the French Covered Court (Open) Championships was all about, it was one of the first tennis events organised in France that continued from 1895 to 1971 and was part of the pre-open air (read French Open) era.
Nonetheless, Paris Masters, as the story goes, was not born in the hands of tennis professionals but was the doing of cyclists who were drawn to the game of tennis. In fact, they were so engrossed, that they started taking part themselves and soon organised the first ever tournament in Stade Pierre de Coubertin, an indoor sporting arena in Paris, where tennis players from across France were invited to play. It was at this venue that Paris Masters was born and continued till 1982.
Thereafter, following a hiatus of 7 years, Paris Masters was re-established, and ever since then has been played in the AccorHotels Arena (a stadium in Bercy, Paris where all kinds of commercial games such as the Olympics are banned). Back then, Paris Masters didn’t have today’s commercial side to it (no money prizes were handed out!), something that was only added in the 1990s.
Around the same time Paris Masters was upgraded to be part of the Grand Prix Tour (a professional tennis tour for male players that has been existing since 1970). Interestingly, today, Paris Masters happens to be the ultimate tournament on the ATP Tour, before the season-ending and much-coveted ATP Finals. It is now run by the French Tennis Federation.
Paris Masters vs. French Open
There’s of course no rule as to the number of tournaments that can be played per sport per city, but people may still wonder why the Paris Masters exist when the widely celebrated French Open also does. Well, the reason is primarily two-fold: first, French Open as we all know is played outdoors, while the Paris Masters (also known as Paris Indoors) is played indoors. Moreover, French Open is famous for its clay and sand courts, whereas Paris Masters is completely played on carpeted hard floors. Apart from that, Paris Masters is predominantly a male tournament, while French Open welcomes both male and female players from across the world.
Paris Masters factfolio
- Paris Masters is the only ATP Tour Masters 1000 tournament that is played indoors.
- Till date, only one player, aka Novak Djokovic has successfully defended his Paris Masters title, that too three times in a row.
- This year is the silver jubilee (50th edition) of the Paris Masters.
- Till date, the youngest winner of Paris Masters is also its first. It was Boris Becker of Germany who earned this feat at the age of 18 years, 11 months.
- Paris Masters got a nickname BNP Paribas Masters in 2000.