When watching the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, a question that surfaces every spring is worth addressing properly: why is one of tennis’s most iconic and storied tournaments an entirely men’s event?
The short answer is that it hasn’t always been. The tournament was founded in 1896 as the Monte-Carlo International and was a combined men’s and women’s event until 1982, when the women’s championships ceased.
The last woman to lift the title in Monaco was Romania’s Virginia Ruzici, who entered the final women’s event as the second seed and was dominant from start to finish, dropping just one set en route to the championship. Ruzici also claimed the doubles title that year alongside Frenchwoman Catherine Tanvier, and the women’s game has been absent from the Principality ever since.
That is now more than four decades without a WTA match played in Monaco — a striking gap given that the Monte-Carlo Masters carries some of the most prestigious real estate on the clay-court calendar.
The reasons are practical as much as anything else. Former tournament director Zeljko Franulovic pointed to the constraints of the venue itself, noting that adding a full women’s draw alongside the men’s event — with additional players, training courts, and the full scheduling demands that brings — is a logistical challenge the Monte Carlo Country Club is not built to absorb. “We do not have more square meters,” he said.
“The surface still stays the same. So it’s not the same as if it was Miami or Indian Wells where there is no problem of space.”
The Monaco calendar compounds the problem. Franulovic noted that spring in the Principality is tightly packed — the Masters tournament occupies April, Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix follows shortly after, and summer arrives quickly.
Running a standalone women’s event at a separate time of year, he argued, would strip it of the commercial and competitive energy that makes the men’s tournament work. “So we have tried before, and it hasn’t worked,” he said.
Prize money parity presents another layer of complexity. Any WTA event sanctioned at a comparable level would require equivalent prize funds, adding significant financial commitment to an already constrained operation.
There are signs, however, that the conversation is slowly shifting. Current tournament director David Massey said earlier this year that organizers are open to bringing women’s tennis back to Monaco, potentially running an ATP and WTA event simultaneously as some other Masters 1000 tournaments do. “A women’s draw? We are open to it.
It’s still a project, perhaps in the future,” Massey said. He acknowledged, though, that it would require additional days on the calendar and a longer gap between the Miami Open and Monte Carlo — structural changes that depend on decisions well above the tournament’s own authority.
For WTA players, the clay season currently offers just two WTA 1000 events — Madrid and Rome — compared with three Masters 1000 clay tournaments on the men’s side. The imbalance has drawn comment from players over the years, and Monte Carlo represents the most obvious candidate for closing the gap, given its history and prestige.
For now, the terracotta courts above the Mediterranean remain the exclusive preserve of the men’s game. Whether that changes will depend on calendar negotiations, venue investment, and political will — none of which appear imminent, but none of which, for the first time in years, are being ruled out either.
