The Paris Masters is moving next year. Let’s hope the vibe travels with it

When tennis fans think of Paris, we think of red clay, Roland Garros, the City of Light in springtime—and a few boos and hisses from the fans, directed at any player who displeases them.

But the French capital also welcomes the sport a second time, on the other side of town in the Bercy neighborhood, where the ATP’s final Masters 1000 of the season has been held each fall since 1986. Next year that will run come to an end, when the tournament moves to the bigger, newer La Défense Arena, in Nanterre. La Défense promises more courts and more modern facilities, and it seems doubtful that the players will miss Bercy’s Accor Arena, an ’80s-era concrete pyramid that just turned 40.

The vibe at Accor is certainly different from Roland Garros. The event is indoors, in clubby darkness, rather than outdoors, in Parisian sun. The surface is hard instead of clay. No one in the stands is wearing an orange-ribboned panama hat. Music blares before matches and during changeovers—still verboten at Roland Garros. And the Eiffel Tower doesn’t linger picturesquely in the background. If “PARIS” wasn’t emblazoned in giant white letters at the back of each court, you might not have any idea where you were.

If anything, though, Bercy is the more purely Parisian event. Far fewer foreign tourists make the trip here than they do to Roland Garros, and many of the court-side seats are occupied by French tennis players past and present. The tournament feels like a week-long, end-of-year send-off party for France’s tennis family.

As for the fans in Bercy, they’re just as passionate and vocal, whether they’re cheering or jeering someone, as they are at Roland Garros. They live and die with their countrymen, who monopolize the stadium court and tend to get embroiled in dramatic three-setters. Spectators in Bercy will also let their disapproval be known. Last year, the boos were so loud for Novak Djokovic after he smashed a pair of racquets that he spent one changeover mock-conducting them from his seat.

Bercy is one of three remaining men’s-only 1000 events, along with Monte Carlo and Shanghai, and it comes at the tail end of the season, when the Grand Slams are over and casual fans of the sport have largely checked out. But it has played host to some great moments over the years.

There was the Becker-McEnroe Cough Bowl of 1989. Marat Safin’s win over Mark Philippoussis, 10-8 in a fifth-set tiebreaker, in the 2000 final.

In 2010, the courts were sped up, and they produced a fantastic semifinal Saturday. Gael Monfils thrilled the crowd by beating Roger Federer in a third-set tiebreaker, before Robin Soderling broke their hearts by edging Michael Llodra in a second squeaker. More recently, we’ve seen Holger Rune’s breakout win over Djokovic in the 2022 final, and Djokovic’s Lion in Winter run through multiple three-setters on his way to the title in 2023. From what I can tell, the crowds in Bercy have only grown in recent years.

Will they continue to grow in Nanterre, which is an hour’s drive northwest of Paris? In 2025, seven of the Masters 1000s will run for 12 days with a 96-player draw, as Canada and Cincinnati join the expansion phase from one-week events and 56 player fields.

It will make for an interesting comparison. I think most fans and top players like the compact, single-week Masters, which keep the action moving quickly from one day to the next. Going to 12 days does have its business advantages: it means more sessions to schedule and more tickets to sell, while the expanded draws give players ranked outside the Top 40 a better chance to make it into these tournaments, and take home a slice of the prize money.

How about for fans? Madrid and Rome went to 12 days this year, and the pace did seem leisurely. Maybe we’ll get used to those extra days and come to savor the chance to watch these tournaments for longer stretches—we don’t have much of a choice at this point.

As far as the Paris Masters goes, a bigger facility probably means a better tournament in the long run. But I’ll be happy with more of the same.