Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: BENJAMIN POLGE / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 4:03 p.m., January 29, 2024

The Paris Masters 1000, which has been played since 1986 in Bercy, will move to La Paris La Défense Arena, in Nanterre, from 2025 and for at least 10 years, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) announced on Monday, confirming information from Europe 1. The new multipurpose hall will be able to accommodate nearly 23,000 people compared to 16,800 at the Accor Arena.

A page turns. After 38 years spent at Bercy, the Paris Masters 1000 will move from 2025, further west, to the largest venue in Europe at La Défense Arena, a move that has become inevitable in the face of increasing demands. largest in ATP, according to the FFT. Bercy, it's over! In the pipeline for many months, the move is now official. The legendary Parisian venue which has hosted the second biggest tennis tournament in France since 1986 after Roland-Garros, will therefore hand over the reins.

Monday morning, the FFT Comex put an end to the false suspense surrounding the future of the tournament, validating this change of site for a period of at least ten years, confirming the information from Europe 1. A decision that the president of the FFT Gilles Moretton justified this by the need to meet the specifications of the ATP men's professional circuit.

“Strategic decision”

“We had to secure the event in its category, and the ATP standards have evolved, the requirements have evolved, we had to make a strategic decision, which we did”, welcomed the president of the FFT, while saluting the Accor Arena teams with whom “very beautiful pages in the history of tennis have been written at Bercy”. Novak Djokovic had made it one of his privileged gardens with his seven titles. The greatest have won, from Pete Sampras to Boris Becker via Andre Agassi and Roger Federer. The last Frenchman to have won there remains Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2008.

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Since 2022, the ATP has considerably strengthened the specifications to grant its Masters 1000 label, which only nine tournaments in the world have and which welcomes the best players on the circuit. The new multipurpose hall located in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), the largest in Europe, with five courts, will be able to accommodate nearly 23,000 people in tennis configuration compared to 16,800 at the Accor Arena. “We are in a global environment that pushes us to evolve. And with La Défense Arena, we will give ourselves the means to achieve our ambitions,” explained Gilles Moretton. 

The Accor Arena no longer meets standards

For several years, the tournament installed at the Accor Arena in the 12th arrondissement has benefited from an exemption to continue to benefit from the Masters 1000 label. With a central court with 15,000 seats, two other courts 1 and 2 with a capacity of 1,000 and 600 seats, training courts installed in an inflatable bubble near the site, and a players' rest room that was too cramped, the Accor Arena no longer met ATP standards. Tournament director Cédric Pioline sounded the alarm in the fall of last year, explaining that Paris could perhaps lose this Masters 1,000 label if the tournament did not meet the new ATP requirements.

A mishap that occurred in Hamburg in 2008, downgraded for not having been able to meet the ATP specifications. A consultation was launched in 2022, to which the management of Accor Arena also responded, proposing numerous transformations of the site. But these efforts did not convince the FFT.

The ATP “very proud”

“There was a whole evaluation process which lasted almost a year. The Paris La Défense Arena project convinced us,” Cédric Pioline explained on Monday. “We must congratulate the city of Paris for bringing the tournament to where it is now. But improvements were needed,” summarized Gilles Moretton. The deputy for sports at Paris City Hall (owner of the walls of the Accor Arena and main shareholder), Pierre Rabadan, was moved at the beginning of November 2023 in the press about this upcoming move. He explained that he had no further news from the FFT after responding to the call for tenders. According to him, the file presented met the new specifications of the circuit.

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“We are very happy with the response from the FFT,” greeted ATP president Andrea Gaudenzi, present Monday morning at the FFT headquarters. “We are very proud to be able to benefit from the largest indoor venue in Europe. Tennis continues to grow,” he added.