Paris/Bercy Wants To Move To February

Written by: on 19th October 2012
A general view of Bercy stadium during the semi-final tennis match between British player Tim Henman and US player Andy Roddick
Paris/Bercy Wants To Move To February

A general view of Bercy stadium during the semi-final tennis match between British player Tim Henman and US player Andy Roddick at the Paris Open ATP tournament tennis Bnp Paribas Masters, Saturday 01 November 2003. EPA/NIKO FRANCE OUT  |

The ATP was lauded for reducing its calendar by two weeks and thereby increasing the length of its off-season, but now it has a problems on its hands with the fall schedule as the Masters 1000 Paris-Bercy which wants out of its late October start date because it is played the week prior to the ATP World Finals in London.

 

Tournament director Guy Forget has asked the ATP to move the event to February in 2014. There has been no decision made on the matter, but it will be an item on the ATP Board of Directors agenda during its meetings at the ATP World Final in London.

 

“To stay glued to the [ATP Finals] is extremely dangerous for us. Upon my arrival [as tournament director], I told [French Federation CEO] Gilbert Ysern, the need to find an alternative solution,” Forget said.

 

The French Tennis Federation owns the tournament, as well as Roland Garros and has interests in other French tournaments.

 

Forget brought up a widely recognized problem that having a big tournament the week before the year end finals puts it at risk when it comes to player fields, because some of the top eight singles players who have already qualified for the ATP Finals are shy about going full steam for two straight weeks.

 

But trying to find a fit for the tournament in February won’t be easy.

 

Next year, the first round of Davis Cup will be played during the first week of February, which is the week after four straight weeks of the Australian summer, which includes the Australian Open.

 

After that, there are three weeks of tournaments before the Masters Series Indian Wells beings in early March and all those weeks have three tournaments going on simultaneously. Three of them are ATP 500-level hard court tournaments in Rotterdam and Dubai, and another, Acapulco, is a currently a 500-level clay court event, but it will switch to hard courts in 2014.

 

The Latin American swing is held during that time in 2014, and another South American tournament (a 500-level) will take place in Rio de Janeiro, when Memphis drops down to a 250.

 

Throwing a Masters Series tournament in Europe into the middle of the South American “Golden Swing” is unlikely to be looked on kindly by those tournament directors.

 

February is also a busy month in France with two ATP 250s happening in Marseille and Montpellier, as well as a WTA Premier event, the Paris Indoors.

 

In order for Paris/Bercy to fit in February, the ATP would have to force three tournaments to move out their February slots and clear an entire week, as it is against ATP rules to have any tournament go up against a Masters’ Series.

 

“We would go from one extreme to another but I prefer this option,” said Forget

 

There is also another hurdle as the Palais Omni sports de Paris-Bercy will undergo a major facelift in 2015, which means the tournament will have to find a temporary home anyway.

 

Forget added that that the FFT has received three proposals to purchase the Bercy sanction but that the tournament has been doing so well that they don’t want to sell it.

 

“We’re not here to do business,” the former Davis Cup captain said. It’s our mission to defend the interests of tennis. We have a roughly balanced budget and it does not cost much money when compared to what it pays in terms of image.

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