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With 2025 Deadline Inching Ever Closer, Paris Masters’ Fight to Retain Its Prestigious Status Is Well and Truly On

Published 11/06/2023, 5:53 AM EST

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via Reuters

Paris Masters has thrived to put forward some amazing tennis competitions. With Novak Djokovic winning this year’s title, the tournament grabbed a lot of attention. But the reason why the tournament is in the headlines has nothing to do with the amazing competitions that took place in the past few days. The tournament’s future is in question, as there are a lot of risks regarding the positioning of the tournament as a Masters event.

The Paris Masters has always been one of the prestigious year-end tournaments that is played by a lot of tennis players. But even after being a Masters 1000 event and being a part of the tennis world for so many years, there is a huge risk of the indoor tournament sinking in.

Paris Masters’ future is in doubt

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Being a part of the open era, the tournament in Paris has been a part of the tennis calendar for decades now. It is the last of the top nine tournaments to be held indoors and a reputed event that takes place before the season-ending ATP Finals. But recently, according to L’Equipe, the future of the tournament is in doubt, as the Paris Masters need to fight to secure their Masters 1000 position as they are stepping closer to losing this title.

As the 2023 edition came to an end, the tournament director, Cédric Pioline, highlighted how the decision to secure the Masters 1000 title would be made by the end of the year. He said, “We talk a lot about 2025, but that will only be the starting point. The idea is to secure the Masters 1000 label for the next 10 or 15 years. There is no deadline, but it seems to me that the end of the year seems like a pretty reasonable area to make our decision known.”

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Subsequently, the risk of losing the label is possible, and the French Tennis Federation is doing everything possible to restore faith in the Paris event. Pioline also suggested that moving to La Défense Arena is something that would possibly meet all the criteria given by ATP, and this can be a straight way to save their Masters 1000 label.

ATP Paris Masters Final: Novak Djokovic vs Grigor Dimitrov; Preview, Head-to-Head, and Prediction

Nevertheless, there is one more event that has seen a downfall in terms of getting down from a Masters 1000 level to becoming an ATP World Tour event. It’s the Hamburg Masters, one of the popular tennis tournaments that is played in Germany. This tournament lost its label in such a way that it has still not been able to recover and claim itself as a Masters 1000 event.

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Will the Hamburg Masters story repeat itself?

The way there are doubts about the Paris Masters’ future, a tournament has already been through the same path in the past. Currently, there are nine Masters 1000 tournaments present on the ATP circuit. However, there was a time when the tournament in Germany was also a part of the prestigious category.

In addition to being carried away by the inclusion of the Madrid Open, the event that was always held prior to the French Open was demoted almost ten years ago. The points were redistributed during the clay court season, and the tournament was repeatedly postponed—from having a spot before the French Open, the Hamburg Masters went on to have none at all.

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Nevertheless, what do you think? Will the Paris Masters suffer the same fate or will it get out in time to be what it is? Do let us know in the comment section below.

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Written by:

Pratishtha Prakash

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Pratishtha Prakash is a Senior Tennis Writer at EssentiallySports. With over 1600 articles under her name, she has an unbridled passion for covering the intriguing developments in the off-court lives of the biggest tennis stars. Pratishtha entered the dynamic world of sports journalism after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media and Journalism.
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Edited by:

Shudh.mukherjee