When tennis fans think of Paris, they think of the red clay, Roland Garros, the City of Lights in the spring, and some boos and whistles from the fans, aimed at any player who doesn’t like with them.
But the French capital also welcomes this sport for the second time, on the other side of the city, in the Bercy area, where the ATP Masters 1000 final has been held every autumn since 1986. when the tournament will move to the bigger and newer La Défense Arena, in Nanterre. La Défense promises more courts and newer facilities, and players will likely not miss Bercy’s Accor Arena, a concrete pyramid from the 1980s that has just celebrated its 40th anniversary.
The atmosphere at Accor is definitely different from the atmosphere at Roland Garros. The event takes place inside, in the darkness of the clubs, rather than outside, under the Parisian sun. The surface is hard instead of clay. No one in the stands is wearing a Panama hat with an orange ribbon. The music sounds before games and during game changes, always said at Roland Garros. And the Eiffel Tower is still not beautiful in the background. If “PARIS” wasn’t written in big white letters at the bottom of each court, you probably wouldn’t know where you were.
2024-11-01 18:29:00
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