Summary
The Monte-Carlo Masters is the clay-court tennis tournament played every April at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, which sits just over the border in France, jump to Where it’s played. The 2027 tournament runs from 3 to 11 April and ends with the doubles and singles finals, jump to Finals Sunday on Sunday 11 April. We take guests for three nights over the final weekend, with the black-tie gala, jump to Gala night on the Saturday and Sunday lunch at the club.
It is one of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments, the level of the men’s tour just below the four Grand Slams. It is also the first Masters 1000 tournament of the European clay season, which runs through the spring to the French Open in Paris. Its courts are cut into a hillside above the Mediterranean.
Where the tournament is played
The Monte-Carlo Country Club is in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the French town on Monaco’s eastern border. Its address is in France, but the club was built by Monaco and the tournament carries Monte-Carlo’s name. Monaco had run out of room. The Société des Bains de Mer, the company that runs the principality’s casino and many of its hotels, bought land at Saint-Roman just across the border and built the club there.
The club needed a new home because of Suzanne Lenglen, the French champion who dominated women’s tennis in the 1920s. When she came back to play at Monte-Carlo in 1925, the club had three courts on the roof of a garage. George Pierce Butler, an American benefactor of the club, decided that was not good enough for her and pressed for a proper club. Prince Louis II backed the plan. More than 1,500 labourers cut the terraces into the hillside. The architect Letrosne designed the club in the Art Deco style, the geometric decorative style of the 1920s. Each terrace held two or three courts, separated by flower beds and cypress trees.
Prince Louis II opened it in February 1928, and it took the name Monte-Carlo Country Club later that year. The Art Deco clubhouse from that first year is still there.
Clay and the start of the season
The courts are red clay. The ball bounces higher and travels more slowly on clay than on grass or a hard court, so points last longer and a big serve wins fewer of them outright. Players slide into their shots on the loose surface. For a spectator that means long rallies, and a final that can turn on who copes better with the conditions on the day.
Rafael Nadal won the singles here 11 times, including eight in a row from 2005 to 2012. More recently Stefanos Tsitsipas won it three times, in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Carlos Alcaraz won in 2025 after losing the first set of the final to Lorenzo Musetti. The score was 3-6, 6-1, 6-0. In 2026 Jannik Sinner beat Alcaraz 7-6, 6-3 in the final, and the win took him back to world number one.
Monaco’s Romain Arneodo won the doubles title in 2025 with his French partner, Manuel Guinard, so the 2026 tournament began with a local player as defending champion.
Since 2009 Monte-Carlo has been the only Masters 1000 tournament that players are not obliged to enter. Most of the leading players come anyway.
Finals Sunday
On Sunday 11 April you spend the day at the Country Club for both finals. Lunch is at Le Smash, the restaurant inside the club, with a three-course set menu and a complimentary bar. Your seats are reserved on Court Rainier III, the main court, for the doubles final and the singles final.
The court is named after Prince Rainier III, who reigned from 1949 until 2005. Its stands rise up from the clay, and from the upper rows you look out over the far side of the court to the sea. Both finals are played on this court on the Sunday.
La Grande Nuit du Tennis
On the Saturday evening you go to La Grande Nuit du Tennis, the tournament’s gala dinner. The gala began in 1992. It takes place in the Salle des Étoiles, a concert and dinner hall within the Monte-Carlo Sporting complex on the seafront in Monaco. The evening is a set dinner with wines and entertainment. Guests include members of Monaco’s princely family, players, sponsors and tournament partners.
The Salle des Étoiles opened in 1974. Its roof slides back, and its glass walls face the sea. Our guests dress in black tie for it, which means a dinner jacket and bow tie for men and an evening dress for women. It suits a group that enjoys dressing up for a night out.
Three nights at the Fairmont
You stay three nights at the Fairmont Monte-Carlo, in a double or twin room. The hotel is in the centre of Monaco, on the seafront below the Casino. Formula 1 fans will know it from the Grand Prix. The circuit’s slowest corner, the Fairmont Hairpin, runs round the front of the building.
On the day you arrive there are welcome drinks at Nikki Beach, the bar and restaurant at the Fairmont. It is an easy start after a day of travelling, because you do not have to leave the hotel.
Your weekend, day by day
Friday 9 April
You fly from London to Nice, and a coach takes you from the airport to the Fairmont. Welcome drinks at Nikki Beach are on the same day.
Saturday 10 April
The day is yours in Monaco, and in the evening you go to the black-tie gala at the Salle des Étoiles.
Sunday 11 April
The day includes lunch at Le Smash and reserved seats for both finals on Court Rainier III.
Monday 12 April
A coach takes you back to Nice Airport for the flight home to London.
On the free Saturday, the Casino de Monte-Carlo is a short walk up the hill. Its gaming rooms are decorated with stained glass, sculpture and painted ceilings. For a walk by the water, Port Hercule is Monaco’s main harbour, along the seafront from the hotel. We have also written a separate guide to spending time in Monaco beyond the Grand Prix.
Monte-Carlo with us
This is a long weekend for people who enjoy tennis and would like it to come with an occasion. It works for a couple, for a small group of friends, or for a host taking clients who would enjoy both a final and a black-tie dinner. Your flights, airport transfers and hotel are arranged before you leave, and so are the gala and finals day.
Tell us how many of you would like to come, and we will come back with the details for April.
Chloe Burchell
Event Manager
Event Manager at Imperial Corporate Events. She’s hosted clients at everything from the Six Nations to the Eastern & Oriental Express, and she’s good company on the day.
