Masters: stars, stories and 50 candles

From this Sunday, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Dannil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman will be in contention, in London, to win the last trophy of the year.

On the occasion of a “masters tournament” which will blow out its 50 candles, flashback and retro effects.

The first :

In 1970, the six best worlds (Australians Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall, Americans Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith, Yugoslav Zeljko Franulovic and Czechoslovakian Jan Kodes) met in Tokyo.

At the origin of the project are Jack Kramer, Philippe Chatrier (then vice-president of the French Federation), and Donald Dell, the first tennis agent (he looked after the interests of Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith, in particular) .

The practice court is clay.

The competition argues, it, on ... carpet.

In front of 10,000 spectators each evening.

The formula is a championship in which all players must compete.

Stan Smith will be declared the winner (4 wins-1 loss, like Laver but the American beat the Australian).

The prize awarded to the winner: $ 15,000 ($ 1.5 million this year in London, if successful in all 3 group matches).

Stan Smith, on the ATP website, recalled a "place that had no heating, Japanese spectators were wrapped in blankets, fur coats and scarves to keep warm."

It must have been like sitting in a refrigerator for them.

I still remember the one stark light bulb in the locker room, which only had a small gas heater to keep our muscles from seizing up as we prepared to step out onto the court ”.

The doubles tournament was created in 1975. The Youth Masters (“Next generation finals”) was launched in 2017. The Women’s Masters has existed since 1972.

The places:

After Tokyo, the masters tournament took place.

From Paris (1971, at the Pierre de Coubertin stadium) to London (2009-2020), from Barcelona (1972) to Shanghai (2005-2008), from Melbourne (1974) to Houston (2003-2004).

Not to mention the magical Madison Square Garden.

Between 1978 and 1989, the top tennis player came to New York to see rock stars perform (Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Guillermo Vilas, Vitas Gerulaitis…).

“Performing in front of nearly 19,000 spectators in New York each winter, and some of the most influential people from various industries, created an electric atmosphere.

The huge dashboard hung over the pitch and lowered the maximum height you could hit a lob.

Cigarette smoke, at times, darkened the air.

The fans were all the way to the top of the stadium, cheering on their favorites, such as Connors or “Mr. New York,” Gerulaitis, who was a huge personality.

It was an intimidating arena with all of its sporting history.

The players came to life in this arena, ”said Ivan Lendl (who won 5 times) on the ATP website.

"It helped tennis, it helped us a lot too"

Bjorn borg

In 1979, Vitas Gerulaitis lived there a singular moment by dominating in the semifinals Jimmy Connors (before losing in the final against Borg).

He could parade… after 16 defeats against his compatriot: “May this be a lesson for you all.

Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row. " 

 calls the edition (marked by many matches completed in the tie-brek of the deciding set) as "the brightest and most exciting tournament ever."

Borg dominated McEnroe in the semi-finals before winning his first Masters title.

"It was a great promotion for the Masters, it helped tennis, it also helped us a lot," said the Swede.

The Masters and its sweet American madness which saw the longest Masters match unfold in the 1988 final with Boris Becker's victory over Ivan Lendl 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6 -2, 7-6 (7/5) in 3:38.

In London (since 2009), Novak Djokovic reigns (4 titles).

The formula:

Championship at the beginning (1970, 1971), then pools with a variable number of players 8, 12 or 16. The current formula of pools and semi-finals existing since 1987. The format of the matches has tried matches in 5 sets before ironing in 3 sets.

If the tournament was sometimes placed at the beginning of the year (in the years 1970-1980), since 1986 it has found its place at the end of the season, the Australian Open taking the habit of opening the calendar, in january.

The surface:

the Masters went from carpet (in the 1970s and 1980s), with an exception for grass (Melbourne, 1974), before settling on hard which will be the surface of the Masters 2021 planned in Italy, to Turin (until 2025).

The records:

17 participations for Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer.

6 coronations for the Swiss (ahead of Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras, Novak Djokovic 5; Ilie Nastase 4; Boris Becker and John McEnroe 3; Björn Borg, Lleyton Hewitt 2;…).

With 59 matches won, Roger Federer is the record holder of the event (ahead of Lendl 40, Becker and Djokovic 36, Sampras 35, Nastase 23, Agassi 22, McEnroe 19, Connors 18…).

The curiosities:

Labeled Pepsi-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Volvo, Nabisco or IBM, titled ATP World Championship or ATP Finals according to the times, the event is encrusted especially as “Masters”, a name lost but which remains in the memories of a test which saw the final between two players from the same country: United States (McEnroe-Ashe 1978, Sampras-Courier 1991, Sampras-Agassi 1999), and Spain (Corretja-Moya 1998).

An event that some have managed to win in singles and doubles: John McEnroe (with his accomplice Peter Fleming) 3 titles in singles, 7 in doubles (the record), Manuel Orentes (1 in singles and 1 in doubles) and Stefan Edberg ( 1 singles title, 2 doubles).

The accursed:

In 9 participations, Rafael Nadal has never managed to win in the Masters.

The Spaniard (finalist in 2010, dominated by Federer and 2013, beaten by Djokovic) is not the only renowned player to whom the Masters has never smiled: Mats Wilander, Andy Roddick or Marat Safin do not appear either. on the winners of the prestigious tournament. 

The French:

Yannick Noah is the participation record holder (4).

Henri Leconte and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (3), Richard Gasquet (2), Pierre Barthès, Guy Forget, Sébastien Grosjean, Gilles Simon and Gaël Monfils (1) follow.

The best blue performance was signed by Sébastien Grosjean and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (finalists in 2001 and 2011).

In doubles, Guy Forget (with the Swiss Jakob Hlasek in 1990) and the pairs Fabrice Santoro-Michaël Llodra (2005) and Nicolas Mahut-Pierre-Hughes Herbert (2019) were crowned.

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Djokovic with Medvedev and Zverev, Nadal with Thiem and Tsitsipas