Nowadays tennis has become highly professional, players come with a large entourage

Raquel Bermúdez Rodríguez | 14 Apr 2025 | 07.30

The Monte Carlo Masters shares its expansion plans. Photo: Getty

Streaming ATP Munich MD live tennis

🎾 Schnaitter/Wallner vs Arribage/Olivetti

Sign up with Bet365 here
Make your first deposit of at least €5
Go to the “Live” section and watch every match

Watch the match on Bet365

Despite several crowd favorites falling in the early rounds, such as Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev – the latter being the top seed – the ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo 2025 concludes an edition that continues to surpass expectations. Carlos Alcaraz ultimately claimed the trophy against a strong competitor, Lorenzo Musetti. Among others, the Italian has sparked excitement in Monaco, despite arriving too physically strained for the grand final.

"We are on the verge of breaking our record once again. We came very close to our maximum capacity for this tournament. Last year, we had over 148,000 attendees, and this year we will surpass the historic milestone of 150,000 spectators throughout the nine days of the tournament," noted David Massey, tournament director, during a press conference. "One of the significant developments in our event this year, evidenced by two main occurrences, was expanding our venue by more than 35% with the introduction of the players' village."

Is there a generational shift?

"We still have players like Novak Djokovic, who did not showcase his best tennis here, and we know he was frustrated with his level of play, yet he continues to perform at an incredible level. He can still defeat the world's best players. Tennis has become much more professional now, not to say it wasn't before, but you can see how players are able to extend their careers well into their 30s. That is one of the reasons we expanded the players' area, as players now come with a large entourage, including coaches, physiotherapists, and other team members."

"This allows you to plan better to keep your body healthy and hopefully play later in your career, so I don't think we will witness a complete transition yet. I believe we still see players born in the 1990s, or even earlier, performing at their peak, but certainly, nowadays, it is exciting to see this generation coming through."

Further expansion of the tournament

"We have plans to expand the venue further, but it will probably be another two or three years before they are implemented. Next year, although we hoped to begin those plans, they probably won't be visible yet. It will take longer, but our intention is to take the necessary time to evaluate what we can do better. If we can replicate this event next year, it would already be a fantastic outcome for the tournament and the team.

The expansion of the venue, at this point, involves looking at the areas surrounding where the current venue is, examining the areas around that and seeing if we can expand in those zones. It takes time, is delicate, but there are ways to grow. We have areas behind the club that could be developed in the future, but not yet; there are ways to do it. And then there are plans for a roof, a new roof for the tournament, but at this moment, they are still in development."

Potential changes in the tournament's future

"We are open to integrating the WTA into our competition within the tournament, which would require more days for the event and a date change of at least one week to accommodate it. There are no plans for this at the moment, but neither should it be ruled out in the future. I believe the best approach would be a combined event rather than consecutive ones. So, if it happens in the future, it will be combined. That said, the format we have now works very well with a men's competition. The intensity we see with this format is truly one of the best formats in tennis."

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, "El tenis de ahora se ha profesionalizado mucho, los jugadores vienen con un gran séquito"