ATP Masters 1000 tournaments sit directly below the Grand Slams in prestige and ranking points. They form the core of the men’s professional calendar, shaping the race for world No. 1, seeding at the majors and qualification for the ATP Finals.
The series is not uniform. Nine events carry the Masters 1000 label, but they run to two different formats, two different points scales at the bottom of the draw and two different obligations on the players who enter them. Those splits explain most of what is confusing about the tier.
What Is a Masters 1000 Event?
Masters 1000 is the highest tier of ATP tournament below the Grand Slams. The name comes from the 1,000 ranking points awarded to the singles champion at each event. The women’s tour operates an equivalent tier, covered in the WTA 1000 guide.
Masters 1000 tournaments draw most of the world’s leading players, run large draws across multiple rounds, carry the biggest prize money outside the majors and exert a major influence on rankings and seeding. Together with the four Grand Slams and the ATP Finals, they make up what the tour refers to as the Big Titles.
The Nine Masters 1000 Tournaments
Five events are played on outdoor hard courts, three on clay and one, Paris, on indoor hard court. Canada alternates annually between Toronto and Montreal.
| Tournament | Location | Surface | Draw | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian Wells Open | Indian Wells, USA | Hard (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| Miami Open | Miami Gardens, USA | Hard (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| Monte-Carlo Masters | Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France | Clay (outdoor) | 56 | Non-mandatory |
| Madrid Open | Madrid, Spain | Clay (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| Italian Open | Rome, Italy | Clay (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| National Bank Open | Toronto / Montreal, Canada | Hard (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| Cincinnati Open | Mason, Ohio, USA | Hard (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| Shanghai Masters | Shanghai, China | Hard (outdoor) | 96 | Mandatory |
| Paris Masters | Paris, France | Hard (indoor) | 56 | Mandatory |
Draw Sizes and Match Format
Following the ATP’s OneVision reforms, the series split into two formats.
96-player, 12-day events
Seven tournaments run this way: Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai. The top 32 seeds receive a first-round bye and begin in the second round. A seeded champion wins six matches; a player entering in the opening round needs seven.
56-player, one-week events
Monte Carlo and Paris retain the traditional format. Sixteen players are seeded and the top eight receive a first-round bye. The draw runs one round shorter than the 96-player version.
Every Masters 1000 match, including the final, is best-of-three sets. The series moved fully to best-of-three finals in 2008. Qualifying draws, wild cards and lucky loser places operate alongside the main draw at every event.
Are Masters 1000 Events Mandatory?
Eight of the nine are mandatory for eligible top players. Those ranked high enough for direct entry are required to compete unless granted an exemption for injury, medical reasons or other approved circumstances. Missing a mandatory event without an exemption counts as a zero in that ranking slot.
Monte Carlo is the sole exception. It carries full 1,000-point status but is formally non-mandatory, so top players can skip it without penalty.
The mechanism behind that exemption is the part most summaries omit. Monte Carlo does not occupy one of the reserved Masters 1000 places in a player’s ranking at all. It counts instead against one of his ATP 500 slots, while still paying out on the Masters 1000 points scale. A deep run there is worth full 1000-level points but competes for a place alongside his 500-level results rather than sitting in a protected position. The wider ranking structure is set out in ATP Rankings Explained.
Ranking Points at Masters 1000 Events
Singles points by round, for both draw formats:
| Round reached | 96-player draw | 56-player draw |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Runner-up | 650 | 650 |
| Semifinal | 400 | 400 |
| Quarterfinal | 200 | 200 |
| Round of 16 | 100 | 100 |
| Round of 32 | 50 | 50 |
| Round of 64 | 30 | 10 |
| Opening round | 10 | Round not played |
The two scales are identical from the title down to the round of 32. The 96-player draw simply carries one extra round at the bottom, so its opening-round losers take 10 points and its round-of-64 losers take 30, while the 56-player draw pays 10 at the round of 64 and stops there. A player who receives a bye and loses his opening match is credited with the points for the round in which he lost.
Qualifying Points
Qualifying is one place where the two formats genuinely diverge. At a 96-player event, reaching the main draw through qualifying is worth 20 points and losing in the final qualifying round 10. At a 56-player event the same achievements are worth 30 and 16. Losing in the first qualifying round earns nothing at either.
How the Series Shapes the Season
Because the series runs from March to November and crosses three surfaces, Masters 1000 results tend to reveal which players can sustain elite form year-round rather than peak for a single fortnight. No other block of tournaments tests hard court, clay and indoor conditions inside one ranking cycle.
Strong runs feed directly into Grand Slam seeding, the year-end No. 1 race and the eight qualifying places at the ATP Finals. A single deep run can swing several hundred points in a player’s 52-week total, which makes these weeks among the most consequential on the calendar. The North American pair, Canada and Cincinnati, carries added weight as the last 1000-level preparation before the US Open, a sequence covered in the North American hard-court swing explainer.
Masters 1000 Compared With Grand Slams
| Grand Slam | Masters 1000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Champion’s points | 2,000 | 1,000 |
| Singles draw | 128 | 56 or 96 |
| Match format | Best-of-five | Best-of-three |
| Duration | Two weeks | One or 12 days |
| Events per season | 4 | 9 |
Grand Slams remain the sport’s defining championships and pay double at the top. But there are more than twice as many Masters 1000 events, and across a full season the tier does more cumulative work in setting the weekly ranking order than the majors do.
The Career Golden Masters
Winning all nine Masters 1000 events at least once over a career is known as the Career Golden Masters. The difficulty is the variety rather than the volume, since the set demands titles on outdoor hard court, clay and indoor hard court across four continents.
Two players have completed it since the series began in 1990. Novak Djokovic was first, finishing the set at Cincinnati in 2018, eleven years after his breakthrough Masters title in Miami. Jannik Sinner joined him in May 2026, completing the set in Rome less than three years after his first Masters title in Toronto, and becoming by some distance the youngest player to manage it.
Season Snapshot — as of August 2026
Djokovic holds the all-time Masters 1000 record with 40 titles, and has won every event in the series at least twice. Figures current to August 2026.
A Tenth Masters 1000
In October 2025 the ATP announced the first expansion of the category in its history. A tenth Masters 1000 is to be staged in Saudi Arabia from 2028, funded through SURJ Sports Investment, a subsidiary of the country’s Public Investment Fund.
The event is planned as a one-week, 56-player tournament on outdoor hard courts, positioned early in the season. It will not be mandatory, which would make it the second non-mandatory event in the series alongside Monte Carlo. The host city had not been finalised at the time of the announcement, with Riyadh described as the most likely option.
How the Series Evolved
The Masters 1000 series dates to 1990, when the ATP restructured the men’s tour and folded the leading events of the old Grand Prix circuit into a single top tier. It has carried several names since, running through the Championship Series, the Mercedes Super 9 and the Tennis Masters Series before settling on Masters 1000 in 2009.
The lineup has changed too, most notably when Madrid took over as a clay event in 2009 and Hamburg was moved down a tier. The format split came later. Madrid, Rome and Shanghai expanded to 12-day, 96-player events in 2023, with Canada and Cincinnati following in 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Masters 1000 tournaments are there?
Nine, with a tenth scheduled to join the series in Saudi Arabia from 2028.
Do all Masters 1000 events have the same format?
No. Seven are 96-player, 12-day events. Monte Carlo and Paris remain 56-player, one-week events.
Is Monte Carlo a Masters 1000?
Yes. It pays full Masters 1000 points but is the only non-mandatory event in the series, and it fills one of a player’s ATP 500 ranking slots rather than a reserved Masters 1000 place.
How many points does a Masters 1000 champion earn?
One thousand, at both draw sizes.
Are Masters 1000 finals best-of-three or best-of-five?
Best-of-three. The series moved fully to best-of-three finals in 2008.
Who has completed the Career Golden Masters?
Novak Djokovic, in 2018, and Jannik Sinner, in 2026. No other player has won all nine events.
Steven Hodel / Global Tennis News
