By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, February 19, 2026Photo credit score: Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters Fb
One of many world’s most prestigious clay-court tournaments is contemplating increasing.
The Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the primary ATP 1000 clay-court match of the season, is “open” to finally increasing to a mixed males’s and girls’s 1000 match although there are not any imminent plans to create a mixed occasion.
Assembly the media in Monte-Carlo to advertise the 119th version of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters beginning on April 4th, Event Director David Massey stated Monte-Carlo is open to turning into a mixed 1000 occasion “with out it being a precedence” for the time being.
“It stays a undertaking, maybe sooner or later,” Massey instructed the media. “We haven’t made any progress in any respect. There have been discussions to, maybe, have a WTA and ATP match on the identical time.
“For that, we’d like extra days. We stay open to that, nevertheless it’s not the plan for the second. It depends upon the calendar. It takes extra weeks between Miami and us, and add extra days. Will probably be a long-term undertaking.”
Timing and courtroom availability are challenges. The Monte-Carl Nation Membership, which hosts the occasion, resides in a confined house elevating the query: Would there be sufficient courts, beneath present situations, to host two tournaments concurrently?
Madrid and Rome every host ATP and WTA 1000 tournaments later within the spring. If Monte-Carlo did sometime host a mixed males’s and girls’s match it will mark 5 mixed 1000 occasions in a row throughout the spring with Monte-Carlo becoming a member of Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome.
Nonetheless, Event Director Massey advised it’s extra of a long-term imaginative and prescient slightly than a urgent quest for Monte-Carlo.
“We’re open to that, with out it being a precedence for the match,” Massey stated. “We’re delighted with the format we now have for the time being, with a subject of 56 gamers.
“We and Paris, we’re the 2 Masters 1,000 made this manner. It provides us a particularly aggressive first spherical, greater than for a Grand Slam or different tournaments the place you’ll be able to transfer slowly. Right here, it’s onerous. And we like that. It’s intense for the gamers, nevertheless it’s a format that they like and that the followers like.”
Massey’s feedback come days after the WTA introduced it’s creating an Structure Council to handle crammed calendar issues of gamers.
WTA Chair Valerie Camillo introduced the creation of the Council on Tuesday.
Will probably be chaired by 2024 US Open finalist Jessica Pegula with former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, WTA Gamers’ Council member Maria Sakkari and Katie Volynets and WTA Council Chair Anja Vreg all sitting on the Council.
The Council’s essential purpose can be to “develop actionable suggestions for consideration by the WTA Board that may be carried out as quickly because the 2027 season,” Camillo stated.
The WTA announcement comes a few days after the WTA 1000 occasion in Dubai was hit by mass participant withdraws.
The world’s High 2-ranked gamers, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, pulled out with Doha champion Karolina Muchova, Doha finalist Victoria Mboko, Doha semifinalist Maria Sakkari and Olympic gold-medal champion Zheng Qinwen all subsequently pulling out.
MORE: Mass Withdrawals From Dubai Spark Event Director Criticism
These withdrawals prompted Dubai Event Director Salah Tahlak to name for harsher penalties for gamers who withdraw from WTA 1000 occasions.
“I feel there needs to be a harsher punishment on the gamers [for withdrawing], not simply fines; they need to be docked rating factors,” Tahlak instructed Reem Abulleil of The Nationwide.
In her letter to gamers printed on the WTA web site, WTA Chair Camillo stated the present calendar feels unsustainable for gamers subsequently the Council has been created and tasked with the task of manufacturing significant options to create a smart schedule that won’t jeopardize the well being of gamers.
“Over my first 90 days, there was a transparent sentiment throughout the Tour that the present calendar doesn’t really feel sustainable for gamers given the bodily, skilled and private pressures of competing on the highest degree,” Camillo stated. “It’s necessary we take a contemporary, collaborative have a look at finest protect the high-quality competitors that builds worth for tournaments and gives an unparalleled expertise for followers.
