The Trophée des Alpilles was a professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament played on outdoor

hardcourt A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the s ...

s. It was part of the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour (known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series) is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

. It was held annually at the Tennis Club de Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (; "Saint-Rémy of Provence"; Provençal dialect, Provençal: ''Sant Romieg de Provença'' and ''Sant Roumié de Prouvènço'' ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department ...

, France, from 2009 until 2016.

History

The creation of an

event in the

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

region had been envisioned for several years by several tennis tournaments organisers, as well as former World No. 4,

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

-born

Sébastien Grosjean Sébastien René Grosjean (; born 29 May 1978) is a French tennis coach and a former professional player. Grosjean reached the semifinals at the 2001 Australian and French Opens, and at Wimbledon in 2003 and 2004. He finished eight consecutive ...

, before the project came to life during 2008 and 2009 when the

organisers, sponsored by Grosjean, met with the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

(ATP) to discuss the introduction of such an event in the calendar. The €42,500 tournament was set in the time slot of the second week of the

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

in September, to allow players eliminated in the qualifications or in the early rounds to compete in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. As a follow-up to the US Open, the event uses the same

tennis ball A tennis ball is a small, hollow ball used in games of tennis and real tennis. Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in Professional sports, professional competitions, but in Amateur sports, recreational play other colors are also used. Tennis bal ...

s, and outdoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

s similar to the ones of the American Grand Slam. For the 2009 inaugural edition, the line up, attracted with the help of Grosjean, included Top 100 players

Björn Phau Björn Phau (born 4 October 1979) is a retired German tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 59 in June 2006. Career highlights include reaching five ATP tour semifinals ( Tokyo in 2005, Casablanca in 2006, Beiji ...

and

Adrian Mannarino Adrian Mannarino (born 29 June 1988) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 17, attained on 29 January 2024. He has won five ATP Tour singles titles, three on hardcourt and two on grass. Te ...

or former

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

semifinalists

Marcos Baghdatis Marcos Baghdatis (Greek language, Greek: Μάρκος Παγδατής, Arabic language, Arabic: ماركوس بغداتيس); born 17 June 1985 is a Greek Cypriot former professional tennis player and coach. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Aus ...

and

Xavier Malisse Xavier Malisse (born 19 July 1980) is a Belgian tennis coach and a former professional player. Born in the north-western Flemish Region, Flemish city of Kortrijk and nicknamed ''X-Man'', he is one of only two Belgian men (the other being David G ...

, who both reached the singles final, in which Baghdatis eventually won his second title on the

2009 ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour is the secondary professional tennis circuit organized by the ATP. The 2009 ATP Challenger Tour calendar comprised 20 top tier Tretorn SERIE+ tournaments, and 142 regular series tournaments, with prize money ranging from ...

Past finals

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

Official websiteITF search
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trophee des Alpilles ATP Challenger Tour Hard court tennis tournaments Defunct tennis tournaments in France