The Masters France (sponsored by

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas (; sometimes referred to as BNPP or BNP) is a French multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial instituti ...

) was a professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

round-robin singles-only tournament, played on indoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

s, specifically

Plexicushion Plexicushion is a brand of acrylic-based hardcourt tennis surface and one of the surface types used on the professional Association of Tennis Professionals and Women's Tennis Association tours. It is manufactured and sold by the sports surfaces di ...

. It was held in December at the Palais des Sports de Toulouse in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, 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 The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

(ATP) tournaments held in France, the Marseille Open 13, the Metz Open de Moselle, the

Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon The Open Occitanie (formerly known as the Open Sud de France and Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hardcourts. It is currently part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour. Founded in 1987, it ...

, and the Paris BNP Paribas Masters, and an eighth French player receiving a

wild card Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

History

Creation

In February 2008, during the 2008 Open 13 in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, three former professional French tennis players,

Jean-François Caujolle Jean-François Caujolle (; born 3 March 1952) is a former professional tennis player from France. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 59 in singles on 31 September 1977. Caujolle retired from tennis in 1981 and became a coach in a Marseille ...

Gilles Moretton Gilles Moretton (born 10 February 1958) is a former professional tennis player from France. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won four doubles titles. He achieved a career-high doubles ranking of w ...

and

Jean-Louis Haillet Jean-Louis Haillet (born 7 May 1954) is a former professional tennis player from France. Haillet enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career he won 2 doubles titles. He is the son of Robert Haillet who was a prof ...

announced the creation on their impulse, and with the participation of the

French Tennis Federation The French Tennis Federation (, FFT) is the governing body for tennis in France. It was founded in 1920, and is tasked with the organisation, co-ordination and promotion of the sport. It is recognised by the International Tennis Federation and by ...

(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 The Grand Prix de Tennis de Toulouse is a defunct Grand Prix and ATP Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1982 to 2000. It was held at the Palais des Sports de Toulouse in Toulouse in France and was played on indoor carpet courts from 19 ...

in 2000. The ''Masters France'' was conceived as a round robin tournament with prize money of 280,000

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

, 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

court, to transform the event into a warm-up tournament for the following year's

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

First event

The first ''Masters France'' was scheduled to be played from December 18 through December 21, with

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

Paul-Henri Mathieu Paul-Henri Mathieu (; born 12 January 1982) is a French former professional tennis player. He won four singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best singles performance in an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament was reaching the semifinals of the 2 ...

Gilles Simon Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former tennis player. He turned professional in 2002 and won fourteen singles titles on the ATP Tour, and attained a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 6, on 5 January 2009. Personal li ...

Julien Benneteau Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 25 and doubles ranking of No. 5 in November 2014. Benneteau did not win a singles ti ...

Adrian Mannarino Adrian Mannarino (born 29 June 1988) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 17, attained on 29 January 2024. He has won five ATP Tour singles titles, three on hardcourt and two on grass. Te ...

Nicolas Mahut Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at th ...

Marc Gicquel Marc Gicquel (; born 30 March 1977) is a former professional male tennis player from France. Tennis career Gicquel turned pro in 1999. He made his ATP Tour singles debut at the 2002 Open 13 tournament on hard courts in Marseilles, France. He ...

and

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 7 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, attained in July 2007. Gasquet won 16 singles ...

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 The 2009 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 97th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Aus ...

, and was replaced by

Michaël Llodra Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 3 in men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), winning 26 career doubles titles, including three majors and ...

. 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 Arnaud Clément (; born 17 December 1977) is a French former professional tennis player and Davis Cup captain. Clément reached the final of the 2001 Australian Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 10 in April 2001. He ...

. Mahut eventually pulled out on December 16, two days before the event, and was replaced by Lyon quarterfinalist and Rennes Challenger winner

Josselin Ouanna Josselin Ouanna (; born 14 April 1986) is a retired French tennis player. Biography Born in Tours and Guadeloupean origin, he was quickly spotted and integrates INSEP with her friends of "blackteam" Gaël Monfils (of Guadeloupe and also Martiniq ...

. 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 Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

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 Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

during the season, to become the first champion of the Masters France.

Past finals

References

External links

Masters France official websiteFrench Tennis Federation official website

{{Tennis exhibition tournaments Defunct tennis tournaments in France Exhibition tennis tournaments Hard court tennis tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 2008 Recurring events disestablished in 2009