Masters France
| Masters France | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Tournament information | |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Abolished | 2009 |
| Location |
Toulouse France |
| Venue | Palais des Sports de Toulouse |
| Surface | Hard (i) |
| Draw | 8S (Round Robin) |
| Prize money | €280,000 |
The Masters France (sponsored by BNP Paribas) was a professional tennis exhibition round robin singles-only tournament, played on indoor hard courts, specifically Plexicushion. It was held in December at the Palais des Sports de Toulouse in Toulouse, 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 (ATP) tournaments held in France, the Marseille Open 13, the Metz Open de Moselle, the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, and the Paris BNP Paribas Masters, and an eighth French player receiving a wild card.
In February 2008, during the 2008 Open 13 in Marseille, three former professional French tennis players, Jean-François Caujolle, Gilles Moretton and Jean-Louis Haillet announced the creation on their impulse, and with the participation of the French Tennis Federation (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 in 2000. The Masters France was conceived as a round robin tournament with prize money of 280,000€, 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 Plexicushion court, to transform the event into a warm-up tournament for the following year's Australian Open.
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