Paris Masters doubles prize money for 2021 after impressive ticket sales

Prize money at the recently completed Rolex Paris Masters will be twice as much as the players expected when the week began after the tournament received better than expected ticket sales.

When the tournament began, total prize money was planned at 2.6 million euros, with the winner due to receive 336,000 euros, way down from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 of 995,000 euros. But thanks to packed crowds throughout, and due to a formula agreed with the ATP, tournament organisers confirmed that they have been able to significantly boost the prize money.

Quality of play boosted ticket sales during the tournament

“The public came back in great numbers,” Paris Masters tournament director Guy Forget said of a tournament won for a sixth time by world No 1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday. “After a record year in 2019 with over 140,000 tickets sold, playing this tournament behind closed doors last year was extremely difficult for us and for the players. (This year), we sold 120,000 tickets, which is an exceptional performance considering we were at 60,000 a month ago.

“Depending on the number of tickets we sell, the prize money will increase,” explained Forget. “With this surprising figure of 120,000 tickets, we will double our prize money and come close to that of 2019. I don’t know if the players know this yet, but we’re thrilled to have made this achievement.”

If I had been able to sign before the tournament for this kind of final, I would have signed with both hands.

Guy Forget

“Our goal is to let the player benefit from the quality of their work. In Roland-Garros we pioneered a string increase of the money attributed in the qualies and the first rounds, the other Slams followed us. And here in Bercy we follow our deal with the ATP and we are very happy to double the prize money. One month ago, I would have said : ‘well, that will be difficult’,” he said.

Forget said the ticket sales were linked to the quality of the tennis produced by the players, while the run of Hugo Gaston from qualifying all the way through to the quarter-finals, and the rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev also played a part.

“If I had been able to sign before the tournament for this kind of final with a room that has been “sold out” since Wednesday evening and a French team in the doubles final (Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert) I would have signed with both hands,” he said.

“Not many tournaments can say we managed to hold the 2019 numbers,” Forget said. There are days when we sold several thousand tickets overnight.

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