The first Masters event was held in March 1990 in Indian Wells. The final featured two greats, Stefan Edberg and Andre Agassi. The Swede proved stronger than the American in four sets. In effect, this series of tournaments replaced the Grand Prix Super Series, since it was in 1990 that the Association of Tennis Professionals became the sole governing body of men’s tennis and reshaped the calendar as it saw fit.
Over the 36 years of its existence, the Masters — second in importance only to the Grand Slams and the season-ending ATP Finals — have gone by different names: from the ATP Championship Series and ATP Super 9 to today’s ATP Masters 1000. Only one thing has remained unchanged: there have always been nine tournaments. Today, they are Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome, the Canadian Open, which alternates between Montreal and Toronto, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris. At various points, the Masters series has also stopped in Hamburg, Stockholm, Essen and Stuttgart. A funny detail: in reality, the Monte-Carlo Masters is not held in the Principality of Monaco, but on the territory of the neighbouring French resort of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.
In October 2025, the ATP announced that the series would soon expand to 10 tournaments for the first time in history. A new Masters, apparently from 2028, will appear in Saudi Arabia. The city and the tournament’s place in the calendar are not yet known. It has been noted that 56 players will take part, and that the event will not be mandatory. True, several months after that announcement, a military conflict began in the Middle East, and at this point it still has not been definitively resolved.
The Covid period remains the only stretch when not all scheduled events in the series were held. In 2020, the Cincinnati Open took place in August, directly before the US Open, on the same New York courts as the American major. That season, only Rome and Paris were also lucky enough to go ahead. The Shanghai tournament was cancelled because of the pandemic from 2020 through 2022.
Until 2007, most ATP Masters 1000 finals were played in a best-of-five format. That underlined the importance and uniqueness of these tournaments: aside from the Slams, only they could boast such extended battles between the best players in the world. But from 2008 onward, all title matches became best of three. And even almost 20 years later, there are still those who believe that decision was a huge mistake.
The first of our players to make his mark at the Masters was Andrei Chesnokov. As early as 1990, he won the title in Monte-Carlo and lost in the Rome final. In both cases, his opponent was the great clay-courter Thomas Muster. The following season, Chesnokov was untouchable in Montreal, where he defeated Sebastian Korda’s father, Petr. That was Andrei’s final triumph in the series.
The Russian leader is Daniil Medvedev, with six titles: Cincinnati and Shanghai in 2019, Paris in 2020, the Canadian Open in 2021, and Miami and Rome in 2023. The incomparable Marat Safin has five wins: the Canadian Open in 2000, Paris in 2000, 2002 and 2004, and Madrid in 2004. Nikolay Davydenko won three times: Paris in 2006, Miami in 2008 and Shanghai in 2009. Andrey Rublev has two trophies, claimed in Monte-Carlo in 2023 and Madrid in 2024. He remains the most recent Russian to win an ATP Masters 1000 title. Back in 2018, First&Red ambassador Karen Khachanov had no equal in Paris. Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, for example, lost all five of his singles finals — but made up for it in doubles, going 7–4 in title matches.
The Masters belong to the category of so-called Big Titles, alongside the Grand Slams, the ATP Finals and Olympic singles gold. The undisputed leader in this trophy chase is Novak Djokovic, who has 72 titles: 24 majors, 40 Masters, seven ATP Finals and one Olympic gold. Rafael Nadal has 59 — 22, 36, zero and one — while Roger Federer has 54: 20, 28, six and zero. From the current generation, naturally, Sinner and Alcaraz stand apart. After Rome, Jannik has 16 Big Titles: four Slams, 10 Masters, two ATP Finals and no Olympic gold. Carlitos is now slightly behind, with 15: seven Slams and eight Masters.
Their nearest target is Andy Murray, with 20 trophies: three Slams, 14 Masters, one ATP Finals and two Olympic golds. Given his current pace, the Italian will most likely overtake the Scot already this season. After that, only two Americans will separate Jannik from the Big Three in this race: Andre Agassi, with 27 trophies, and Pete Sampras, with 30. Among our players, Medvedev is the best, with eight titles: one Slam, six Masters and one ATP Finals. Just one step ahead of the Russian are Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Gustavo Kuerten and Muster.
