Masters France

Last updated
Masters France
Masters France logo.png
Tournament information
Founded2008
Abolished2009
Location Toulouse
France
VenuePalais des Sports
de Toulouse
Surface Hard (i)
Draw8S (Round Robin)
Prize money€280,000

The Masters France (sponsored by BNP Paribas) was a professional tennis exhibition round-robin singles-only tournament, played on indoor hard courts, specifically Plexicushion. It was held in December at the Palais des Sports de Toulouse in Toulouse, France, in 2008 and 2009. The eight players qualified for the event were the top seven French players, based on their performance in the four Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments held in France, the Marseille Open 13, the Metz Open de Moselle, the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, and the Paris BNP Paribas Masters, and an eighth French player receiving a wild card.

Contents

History

Creation

The main court in Toulouse during the 2008 Masters France Masters france.jpg
The main court in Toulouse during the 2008 Masters France

In February 2008, during the 2008 Open 13 in Marseille, three former professional French tennis players, Jean-François Caujolle, Gilles Moretton and Jean-Louis Haillet announced the creation on their impulse, and with the participation of the French Tennis Federation (Fédération Française de Tennis – FFT) of a special year-end event for French tennis players, intended to reinforce competition in the four existing French ATP events on the tour, recreate an event similar to the defunct French National Singles Championships, and bring back a large tennis event in Toulouse after the discontinuation of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Toulouse in 2000. The Masters France was conceived as a round robin tournament with prize money of 280,000€, with two groups of four players, to determine the finalists, matches played in two sets and a match tie-break, and including the seven players having won the most ATP points in the four French ATP events of Marseille, Metz, Lyon and Paris, and an additional wild card. The event, first planned to be played in November, right after the BNP Paribas Masters, was moved to late December, and the surface of choice was changed from a fast indoor hard court to a slower Plexicushion court, to transform the event into a warm-up tournament for the following year's Australian Open. [1]

First event

French No. 2 Gilles Simon, winner of the inaugural 2008 Masters France over Michael Llodra Gilles Simon at the 2008 Masters France.jpg
French No. 2 Gilles Simon, winner of the inaugural 2008 Masters France over Michaël Llodra

The first Masters France was scheduled to be played from December 18 through December 21, with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Gilles Simon, Julien Benneteau, Adrian Mannarino, Nicolas Mahut, Marc Gicquel and Richard Gasquet as the wild card. Tsonga decided to withdraw on December 2, explaining he wanted to delay his return to competition, and set up his own preparation at the end of December for the 2009 Australian Open, and was replaced by Michaël Llodra. [2] Gasquet also withdrew on December 9, due to a lack of preparation after being sidelined for several weeks due to injury, and was replaced by Arnaud Clément. [3] Mahut eventually pulled out on December 16, two days before the event, and was replaced by Lyon quarterfinalist and Rennes Challenger winner Josselin Ouanna. [4]

Gicquel, Ouanna, Clément and Mannarino were eventually eliminated in the round robin stage of the event, with Julien Benneteau and Paul-Henri Mathieu qualifying for the third place match, and Gilles Simon and Michaël Llodra for the final. The third place match was dominated by Mathieu until 7–5, 4–4, when Benneteau managed to break back, and kept his momentum to win the match tie-break, and clinch the tournament's third place, on the score of 5–7, 6–4, 10–4. The final saw Simon took the early advantage, as the Tennis Masters Cup semifinalist broke Llodra twice to lead 5–1, before the Adelaide and Rotterdam titlist lined up 6 straight games to win the set 7–5. Both players broke each other repeatedly in the second set, until the tie-break, where Simon saved two match points for Llodra, and snatched the set 7–6(7). Already diminished by an arm strain, Llodra decided to retire, allowing the World No. 7, winner of Casablanca, Indianapolis and Bucharest during the season, to become the first champion of the Masters France.

Past finals

YearChampionRunner-upScore
2009 Flag of France.svg Julien Benneteau Flag of France.svg Arnaud Clément 7–6(7–2), 6–2
2008 Flag of France.svg Gilles Simon Flag of France.svg Michaël Llodra 5–7, 7–6(7–9) retired

Related Research Articles

Richard Gasquet French tennis player

Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performance in Grand Slam singles tournaments was reaching the semifinals of the 2007 and 2015 Wimbledon Championships and the semifinals of the 2013 US Open. His best performance in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 singles tournaments was being the runner-up in Hamburg in 2005 and Toronto in 2006 and 2012. He won the mixed doubles Grand Slam title at the 2004 French Open, partnering Tatiana Golovin. He won the men's doubles Olympic bronze medal in 2012 with his doubles partner Julien Benneteau. Gasquet is best known for his elegant groundstrokes and his one-handed backhand.

Michaël Llodra French tennis player

Michaël Llodra is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titles and gaining victories over Novak Djokovic, Juan Martín del Potro, Tomáš Berdych, Robin Söderling, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nikolay Davydenko, Janko Tipsarević and John Isner. Llodra has been called "the best volleyer on tour".

Gilles Simon French tennis player

Gilles Simon is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and has won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.

Nicolas Mahut French tennis player

Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles.

Ernests Gulbis Latvian tennis player

Ernests Gulbis is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schüttler, and in 2010, he won his first ATP Tour singles title in the Delray Beach, defeating Ivo Karlović in the final. In total, Gulbis has six ATP titles to his name. His best performance at a Grand Slam is reaching the semifinals of the 2014 French Open. He had previously reached the quarterfinals of the 2008 French Open. Gulbis' career-high singles ranking is world No. 10, making him the only Latvian tennis player ever to be ranked inside the top 10 in ATP Singles Ranking. He achieved this in June 2014.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga French tennis player

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a French professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga has won 18 singles titles on the ATP Tour, including two Masters 1000 titles.

Édouard Roger-Vasselin French tennis player

Édouard Roger-Vasselin is a French professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles.

Josselin Ouanna French tennis player

Josselin Ouanna is a retired French tennis player.

The 2008 Masters France was a non-ATP affiliated exhibition tennis tournament. It was the first edition of the event held in Toulouse, France from December 18 through December 21, 2008. Only a men's singles tournament was held.

The 2010 Open 13 is a tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 17th edition of the Open 13, and is part of the International Series of the 2010 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Palais des Sports in Marseille, France, from February 15 through February 21, 2010.

2010 BNP Paribas Masters Tennis tournament

The 2010 BNP Paribas Masters was a tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 38th edition of the tournament known that year as the BNP Paribas Masters after the sponsor BNP Paribas. It was part of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 of the 2010 ATP World Tour. It was held at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from 6 November through 14 November 2010. The top eight seeds were Roger Federer, defending champion Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Robin Söderling, Tomáš Berdych, Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick.

The 2011 BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor red clay courts. It was the fourth edition of the tournament. It was part of the 2011 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Bordeaux, France between May 7 and May 15, 2011.

The 2011 BNP Paribas Masters, also known as the Paris Masters, was an ATP World Tour professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 39th edition of the tournament which was part of the 2011 ATP World Tour. It took place in Paris, France between 7 and 13 November 2011.

The 2012 Open 13 was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 19th edition of the Open 13, and was part of the World Tour 250 tier of the 2012 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Palais des Sports in Marseille, France, from 20 February through 26 February 2010. Juan Martín del Potro won the singles title.

The 2012 BNP Paribas Masters was a professional tennis tournament that was played on indoor hard courts. It was the 40th edition of the tournament which was part of the 2012 ATP World Tour. It took place in Paris, France between 29 October and 4 November 2012.

The 2013 Open Sud de France was a tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 26th edition of the Open Sud de France, and part of the ATP World Tour 250 Series of the 2013 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Arena Montpellier in Montpellier, France, from February 4 to February 10, 2013.

The 2013 BNP Paribas Masters was a professional tennis tournament that was played on indoor hard courts. It was the 41st edition of the tournament, which is part of the 2013 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, between 28 October and 3 November 2013.

The 2015 BNP Paribas Masters was a professional tennis tournament that was played on indoor hard courts. It was the 43rd edition of the tournament, and part of the 2015 ATP World Tour. It took take place at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, between 31 October and 8 November 2015.

The 2016 BNP Paribas Masters was a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 44th edition of the tournament, and part of the 2016 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, between 29 October and 6 November 2016.

The 2019 Rolex Paris Masters was a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 47th edition of the tournament, and a Masters 1000 event on the 2019 ATP Tour. It took place at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France, between 28 October and 3 November 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "Le Masters France, c'est pour bientôt !". fft.fr (in French). 2008-02-13. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
  2. ↑ "Tsonga ne participera pas au tournoi". mastersfrance.com (in French). 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  3. ↑ "Clément présent au Masters France BNP Paribas". mastersfrance.com (in French). 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  4. ↑ "Retrait de Nicolas Mahut". mastersfrance.com (in French). 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2008-12-18.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.