There was a time when the Bercy tournament was cursed or badly born. The tasteless finals followed one another and the public, despite a few hot shots like the Noah-Santoro match or even McEnroe-Leconte, was bored, stunned by a game where service reigned supreme. It was also the era of exotic laureates …
It must be said that, placed at the end of the season when the bodies are cooked, the tournament was struggling to find a place in an already overloaded indoor season.
Without being worried as such, the tournament often ran empty and without Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. And then, fortunately, Zorro arrived, or more exactly Jean-François Caujolle.
The first decision of “Jeff” was to change the surface, to reassure the stars and to start imagining innovative devices to make the tournament a show in the NBA.
At first, some cried wolf, seeing it as a loss of values, but as the leg of the Marseillais took shape, the tournament finally found a real identity.
Once the work was done, Jeff left and today, it is clear that the Rolex Paris Masters with the FFT logo has become an unmissable event of the tennis year, a “place to be” like the we say on the other side of the Atlantic.
This week is also the perfect example with the epic of Hugo Gaston and a dream final.
It is therefore useful to criticize, but it is also good to congratulate when a job is done so well.
So, we can always point out some programming errors, the fact remains that this Masters1000 has become a great tennis festival, a great publicity also for the discipline.
Congratulations to the fans, to the players but also to the organization which knew how to level up and make the necessary efforts to make this event a benchmark.
Yes, tennis is alive and well, especially in such a hot setting.
Posted on Monday, November 8, 2021 at 17:57
