The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male tennis players held in Paris, France. The tournament is a part of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 on the ATP Tour. The tournament is usually final tournament in the ATP Tour before the season-ending ATP Finals. Currently, the tournament is sponsored by Rolex.
History
The tournament was hosted for the first time in 1968 as the French Covered Court Championships.
In 1989, the tournament was one of the premier nine tournaments of the Grand Prix Tour. It was also a part of the Grand Prix Super Series replacing the Tokyo Open.
Paris Masters 2018
The 2018 Paris Masters is the 47th edition of the tournament with the first being held back in 1968.
The tournament is the ninth final tournament of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series, culminating to the ATP Finals at the end of the season.
Since 2009, the tournament is the only Masters 1000 tournament which is played indoors.
Venue and Details
The tournament will be played on the hard surfaces of AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France.
The tournament is scheduled to be held from 29th October 2018. The final will be played on 4th November 2018.
Defending Champions
The men’s singles final of the 2017 Paris Masters was won by Jack Sock. Coming into the final as the favourite, Sock was in for a rough ride as his rival Filip Krajinovic had nothing to lose. Krajinovic had entered the tournament as a qualifier and he took the first set 7-5. But Sock came back to win the remaining couple of sets 6-4 and 6-1 to win his first Masters title. Sock is only the fourth American to win the tournament after Tim Mayotte, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot won the men’s doubles title at the 2017 Paris Masters. The Polish-Brazilian pair earned a hard-fought victory overcoming the likes of Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers by 7-6(3), 3-6, 10-6. The final lasted an hour and 55 minutes. It was the pair’s sixth title and third Masters crown of the season.
Big Names
A number of big names from the tennis world took part in the 2017 Paris Masters. Rafael Nadal was the biggest name among these. Nadal has never won the tournament and has only a final appearance to his name back in 2007. He will be looking to add this title to his kitty in 2018.
Up and coming stars like Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov also participated in 2017.
