Mathieu Warnier, Media365: published on Sunday November 3, 2024 at 3:45 p.m.
While the last final of the Rolex Paris Masters played at the Accor Arena will take place this Sunday, tournament director Cédric Pioline told the press that the future atmosphere in the Paris-La Défense Arena will not be a problem.
The Rolex Paris Masters will change era. Played without interruption in the Accor Arena at Paris-Bercy since its creation in 1986, the Masters 1000 organized in the capital will move from 2025. In order to meet the ever-increasing demands of the ATP, the French Tennis Federation (FFT ) announced last January the installation of the event at the Paris-La Défense Arena. Present in front of the press this Sunday, a few hours before the final between Alexander Zverev and Ugo Humbert, tournament director Cédric Pioline firstly confirmed an increasing attendance for this 52nd and final edition in the heart of the capital with “ 176,416 spectators” recorded. A figure that the former world number 5 puts to the credit of a “level revised upwards for the two days of qualifying”. Future facilities should make it possible to go even further with a central court whose capacity should exceed 16,000 seats, i.e. more than the Accor Arena in tennis configuration. But, while the history of the tournament has been written in the setting that the Parisian venue represents, the question of the transition to the Paris-La Défense Arena arises. Although he admits that “it will take time”, Cédric Pioline told the press his desire to “build something different”.
Pioline: “Not too worried about next year”
He adds that “the identity within La Paris Défense Arena will be built over time”. In order for this to be done “in the most positive way possible”, the director of the Rolex Paris Masters is counting on the presence of the best players in the world, thanks to the dates close to the Turin Masters. “I don’t have a big worry about the fact that we manage to have the same kind of atmosphere in a different room,” he added in comments collected by Le Figaro. For this, the former player drew a parallel with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the swimming events of which took place in this same hall. “When we see the atmosphere there was with Léon Marchand, I don’t have too much worry for next year,” he added. And this even if the organizers are going to start “from a blank slate” in 2025. However, before diving into the future of the tournament, the present is a final which will end in the blink of an eye anyway with the success of Alexander Zverev or Ugo Humbert. “We can finish a French winner or a German,” recalled Cédric Pioline. It would be symbolic because the German Boris Becker was the winner of the first edition. » No doubt the Parisian public will have a fairly clear preference as to the outcome of this last meeting at the Accor Arena.
