Marseille Open shares how they managed to attract Federer, Nadal, Djokovic
In an interview to La Marseillaise, the Marseille Open Tournament Director Jean-François Caujolle commented on how the French event keeps attracting a lot of great players in the last years. "There are a lot of things involved. The tournament progressed, it's popularity increased. When I look at the first years, I would not say it was terrible. Then little by little, we were lucky to have players who marked the Open Era, French players like Arnaud Clement, Sebastien Grosjean, Richard Gasquet, Gaël Monfils, Federer, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Thomas Enqvist, Boris Becker. Our position on the calendar is good and that allowed us to attract Djokovic, Nadal or Murray. The good tournament image interests the players' agents, as well as the earnings of this tournament. So you attract the youngest talents."
How did he think of creating this tournament? "In 1993 with my friend Bernard Fritz, who was a tennis player. We were lucky to be financially supported, that allowed us to progress and the city supported us. It's not just about money, you need to improve under the sports level of view too."
On Felix Auger-Aliassime, Caujolle concluded: "He is promising. He is talented, focused, has a great body and Federer took him under his control as a hitting partner. They trained together. I hope he will the title here one day."
This year Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in a straight-set final. At one point before the event, it seemed like the Greek had even withdrawn.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2V1uhEd
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