ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 13, 2025

David Massey

Press Conference

DAVID MASSEY: Thank you for coming. It's a pleasure to see you all here this morning.

I gathered yesterday you finished your press tournament, so we will be doing the ceremony afterwards, straight after this, as well.

Thank you for your help in communicating to our fans that the time of the final was revised. As you know, we anticipated it. We switched the order to do singles first, a decision that was taken on Friday when we knew the forecast was not necessarily in our favor, but we wanted to give ourselves the best chance to finish what has been an incredible edition of this tournament.

We are set to break our record yet again. We were very close to what is our maximum capacity at this tournament. Last year we had over 148,000, and this year we will surpass the historical bar of 150,000 spectators over the nine days of the tournament.

One of the biggest evolutions of our event this year, sort of two things that came through, was the expansion of our venue by over 35% with the introduction of the Players Village where we privatized the area which was Monte-Carlo Beach Club, and we made it truly, I believe, the best Player Village in the world for tennis.

We have had extremely positive feedback from the players. I think there has been a change for the players and a change for us, and we are delighted how smooth it's gone with this introduction of this new area and an important evolution for the tournament, because we were really missing square meters for the players, and so we were able to do that. Again, delighted how that's worked out.

Another really important evolution, which was introduced by the ATP, was the electronic line calling, a system put in place to -- as you know, it started this year for all tournaments, but we were the first Masters 1000 on clay to have ELC Live. In collaboration with the company Hawk-Eye, a lot of work was done to prepare for that.

Again, let's see how today goes, but we had no issues whatsoever with the ELC Live, and Video Review was also the first time on clay at a Masters 1000 to have the review.

So those really were sort of big shifts for the tournament, for what's been historically -- we have always favored line judges, but again, as requested by the ATP, we have moved now to a full electronic system to do that, and integrating AI in doing so.

Just another word on how things have gone on-site. As you know, we have renamed Court No. 2 with Court Elizabeth-Ann de Massy. That was an important part for two reasons. One was to have an ever-lasting presence of Baroness Elizabeth-Ann de Massy. As you know, she was such a critical part of this tournament for 50 years. For us to sort of have a chance to integrate her in a very present way with those matches that we were able to show every day on that court, some very high quality matches, we are delighted to have done that. That began with a ceremony with all the top players present, together with also Prince Albert himself. So really happy with how that went.

It also allowed us to sell those tickets on an individual basis which brought, for the first time, anybody that came into the venue had a seat, a dedicated seat. That, for us, has created a sense of tranquility. Before, what was previously Court No. 2 and Court 9 and 11 were sold as courts annex, and so we were able to this time offer every fan a dedicated seat.

That gave everybody on-site a sense of calmness in terms of there is no rushing to go to different courts as the order of play may have been attractive to them. I think that's been a very positive evolution brought on by the team.

It allowed us also to reach our capacity. So the first Saturday is where we really gained an extra 2,000 spectators. We had extremely strong attendance that began from the very first day as we opened the gates to the public. Every day we have basically maintained or surpassed our record from the prior year.

Today, of course, we are sold out today, but we are hoping of course that spectators still come in force. The singles final today to start off means we are going to have new champions of the tournament, so that is exciting, between obviously Carlos Alcaraz, who is a multiple Grand Slam champion, and then of course Lorenzo Musetti, who, as we know, we are so close to the Italian border here, that it's very, very strongly attended by Italians.

I think it will work up to an amazing final, and hopefully the weather will be in our favor. As to the weather forecast, again, we are seeing a forecast of a dry window, and so we are hoping that we're going to get through this without any issue, followed by the doubles.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsors, starting with Rolex, as you know, our key sponsor that we have now for over 20 years. We have BNP Paribas that celebrate their 20th year with us, as well, and we have signed with them another 5-year contract, so together with other sponsors that have also renewed with us. So we are delighted with this edition overall. Hoping that today concludes what has been a really incredible nine days for the tournament.

One historical moment for us could come as well with the Monaco player that had match points in 2023, and so we'll see whether Romain can go all the way this time. If he does, he will become the first Monaco player to clinch a title here, which again, would be historic.

Any questions from your side? Can we take any questions, obviously in English and French? We did this in English. It was very weird last year that I was speaking in French, and then having Diane translate for me into English, which is, again, my native language. Today we have done it the other way around. Happy to take any questions you have.

Q. (Question in French.) If the weather is bad, is it possible to finish the match on the Elizabeth-Ann de Massy court?

DAVID MASSEY: So we have got that court ready. It is ready for us to utilize. But our desire and strong preference is to maintain the schedule on Court Rainier III. So we have no intention on moving to the Court Elizabeth-Ann de Massy for the moment, but eventually, if we need to, we can do so, but we will be certainly waiting a long time before doing that.

Q. Congratulations for the organization. In the final, we have two tennis players born after 2000. This is like a turning point in the history of tennis. You are satisfied with this?

DAVID MASSEY: Yeah, I mean, I think of course we do see these cycles where the elder generation will become less present as time goes on and they will become the next generation.

Of course we still have players like Novak Djokovic didn't play his best tennis here, we know he was frustrated with his tennis level over here, but he still plays amazing tennis. I think you saw his performance in Miami. He can still beat the best players in the world.

So tennis right now has become so professional, not saying it wasn't professional before, but you can see how players are able to maintain their career longer and longer into their late 30s.

I think that's one of the reasons why we expanded the player area, was because the players come now with a big entourage, and they have with them their coaches, their physical trainers, their physios, and other members of the team. A little bit like a Formula 1 pilot or driver that has a team around them, it's very similar in top tennis that you have a full team around them. That allows you to plan best to keep your body healthy hopefully and play later into your career.

So I don't think we are going to see a transition completely yet. I think we still see players who were born in the 1990s or even earlier than that still playing at their top level. But certainly, for today, it's exciting for us to see this generation come through.

Obviously Alcaraz has won some major titles before, and Lorenzo Musetti, he's performing at a high level. So hoping today will be a very competitive match for everybody to enjoy.

Q. Thanks, and congratulations for everything. I'd like to know, since you said everyone has his own seat, so you know exactly how many people -- when you say "sold out today," you know exactly how many people there are or should be today, how many they are? Maybe you said before I came, but how many they are, the capacity for just one day? And also, we hope it's not going to rain, but if it was going to rain after half hour or one hour, when the people would be reimbursed eventually for their tickets? After how much tennis played?

DAVID MASSEY: Yeah, to answer your first question about the capacity, we have the capacity at any given time of just over 15,000. That is at any given time. So we are expecting to pass the bar of 150,000 spectators at the tournament this year, and so that is on the basis that we don't have everybody at the same time.

In terms of reimbursement of ticketing, the rain policy is an hour and a half of play, assuming that we couldn't complete the match. But we are extremely positive that we are doing so at this stage. So the rain policy is on the back of the tickets and also is on our website. But we're not there right now, and our focus is very much on delivering a great day of tennis between two finals.

Q. Good morning. You mentioned the novelty that you introduced this year with the ELC and Players Village. Are you already working on further evolutions for next year's tournament?

DAVID MASSEY: Yeah, I think it's going to be taking a little longer than that. We have plans that are developing the venue beyond, but it's probably going to be for another two to three years before those are introduced.

So next year, whilst we hoped to commence those plans, probably they won't be visible quite yet. They will take longer. But our intention, yeah, again, we will take the time to evaluate what we can do better, but if we are able to reproduce this event next year, it would already be a fantastic result for the tournament and the team.

Q. Can you perhaps elaborate on the extension of the venue?

DAVID MASSEY: So the extension of the venue, at this time right now, it's looking at the areas around where the footprint of the current venue is, looking at the areas around that and seeing if we can expand into those areas.

It takes time. It's delicate. But there are ways of growing. As you may recall what is now entrance 3 and entrance 4, that was an expansion in itself in recent history, and we have possibility of maybe prolonging that and integrating a larger area, and basically bringing entrance 4 further out potentially. That's one way of doing it.

We also have areas which are behind the club that could potentially be developed in the future too, but not quite yet. But there are ways of doing this.

And then there are plans which remain for a roof, a new roof for the tournament, but at this stage right now, they are still being developed.

Q. Congratulations for yet another successful Masters. For many years running, we have been hearing ladies players with a desire to have their own tournament here. I was wondering, have there been any concrete ideas, proposals, steps taken in this direction?

DAVID MASSEY: It's a good question. I think at this stage right now there are no concrete plans to change our format. So for next year we know our dates are already set, so we are on the 4th through 12th of April, a nine-day event with a 56 draw men's singles, so the same format of the other two draws.

We obviously remain open to introducing the WTA into our competition into the tournament. I believe that would require us to have more days for the event and a shift in date by at least one week to accommodate that.

Nothing planned at this stage but not to be ruled out in the future either. The best product I believe would be a combined event and not back to back. So we are really, if it does happen in the future, it will be combined.

Having said that, I think that the format we have right now works extremely well with a men's competition. Intensity that we see with this format I think is really -- I think it's one of the best formats in tennis.

As a reminder, the cutoff to enter this tournament, the top 45 players get into the draw directly, so we had a 48 original cutoff, with very few players actually not able to play this event.

So we had a very healthy player field overall, and I think that it's very tough to play this tournament, and the first rounds are very, very competitive. We saw this with some big matches from the first day.

Even the qualifying is very competitive. Players who normally go straight into main draw in Indian Wells, Miami, and other tournaments of 96 draws or Grand Slams, cannot play here directly.

So it's a format I think that delivers to fans intense and very competitive tennis, very high-level tennis, and for that, I think, you know, we are in a great position for the future, as well.

Q. Regarding a ladies tournament, is there any pressure from the WTA on the tournament? Did you receive any messages saying it would be nice?

DAVID MASSEY: I wouldn't say pressure, no. I wouldn't use the word "pressure." But again, we are not in active discussion to integrate a WTA tournament at this stage. There is no pressure; nor are we saying that we would never do that either. It's just not an action item at this point.

Q. On extension of the venue, are you looking for more space for the players, for the fans?

DAVID MASSEY: For the players I think we are now very satisfied with what we have. It's now more a question of if we do expand, it will be the quality of how we receive our fans.

And also there will be some areas where we were looking to expand yet again the player areas, but it's more of the technical player areas that we're looking to do, like the locker rooms and so forth. It's not really the player restaurant or player lounge. That is now I think a great size at this stage right now with this year's changes.

Q. What an intense week. Feedback from the tennis world, it's super nice to watch in eight days, but the problem is the packed calendar still. We hear the rumors that Saudi Arabia will get the tenth Masters. So the solution maybe for better calendar for the players will be to have all the Masters, like yours and Paris, for eight days. Is there a way back? Because I got the feeling that Indian Wells and Miami, they were too long this year and too exhausting.

DAVID MASSEY: I think the question is best asked to the ATP (laughter). So, yeah, I would redirect your question to the ATP Tour. I mean, I think anything is possible, but I don't think anything is planned, either.

One of the advantages of the 96 draws is you're offering extended premium days. It's not to criticize the new format. We can see the success of Indian Wells and Miami. You know, they had over 500,000 spectators in Indian Wells, and Miami also very successful too.

As we look forward to Madrid and Rome, you know, they have been able to offer more premium tennis to more fans. So I think that was the goal in creating this format.

There are pros and cons. Again, I think we can be extremely satisfied with our current format here, and equally, you know, is working as well the extended format. But please direct your question to the ATP Tour for that very purpose.

In terms of Saudi Arabia, we are aware of those discussions, and there is yet to be a definitive schedule where that will be taking place, and I know that's another question for the ATP Tour, as well.

So, yeah, I think if you want, I can give you the contact details for the ATP Tour after this.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. I hope everyone has a wonderful final day here.