Roland, Bercy and the others… Panorama of the “small” French tournaments

With the return of tournaments to China in September and October, the Metz Moselle Open (hard, indoor, ATP 250) has been rescheduled… between Paris-Bercy and the Turin ATP Finals (November 5 to 11). Not cool. Metz is in any case a destination that is doing well for the French, who have 11 victories in 19 editions. Note that at 19, Novak Djokovic won his second ATP tournament there in 2006.

Launched in 2010, the Open Sud de France (ATP 250) in Montpellier (from February 6 to 12) marks the start of indoor tournaments on hard courts in France. Earthlings fleeing to South America, Ricans fleeing the cold in Dallas or Delray Beach, Montpellier remains above all a matter of Europeans… and French, who have won 8 editions. He is followed by his Marseille cousin the Open 13 Provence (ATP 250), this week (from February 20 to 26). Created thirty years ago, the Open 13 saw 18-year-old Roger Federer lose his first final on the main circuit in 2000. He won there in 2003. Another Swiss, Marc Rosset, is the record holder for victories ( 3), with the French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, winner in 2009, 2013 and 2017. Finally, the Open 6th Sens Métropole de Lyon (WTA 250) also electrifies our courts in winter (from January 30 to February 5). In the wake of local star Caroline Garcia, beaten in the final this year by Alycia Parks, the Lyon tournament has taken over since 2020 the torch of the Open Gaz de France (1993-2014). In 2020, the American Sofia Kenin had her first Australian Open winner’s cap there.

France is, along with the United States and Italy, the country that offers the most ATP Challenger circuit tournaments. Almost twenty. Roger Federer won his first Challenger in Brest in 1999, while Rafael Nadal failed in the final of Aix-en-Provence in 2003. Among women, the WTA 125 tournaments, a category created in 2012, experienced a serious inflation for two years. In 2022, there were 24, including six in France (Saint-Malo, Paris and Contrexéville in particular). Finally, many ITF tournaments (3rd circuit) animate the French provinces throughout the year.

After the prestigious Masters 1000 of Monte-Carlo, Monegasque even if it takes place in the French town of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (from April 9 to 16), two other clay-court tournaments are on the program the week of April 21 to 27. may. Honor to the ladies, the Internationaux de Strasbourg (WTA 250), born in 1987, have the status of “dean” of small French tournaments. Big names have paraded there: Steffi Graf, with low morale and loose knees, triumphed there in 1997. Jennifer Capriati began her reconquest there in 1999. And a year later, Maria Sharapova proved to herself that she could win over ochre. In Lyon, the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ATP 250) came back to life on clay in 2017, after an absence of eight years and a first life on carpet then hard (1997-2009). The Stakhanovists of the crushed brick like to polish their ultimate lifts there before Roland-Garros. Of the first 5 winners, two, Dominic Thiem and Stéfanos Tsitsipas, immediately reached the final of the French Grand Slam.