Only two French players have won the Paris Masters title.
Five years after the tournament’s inception, the Paris crowds saw their first French champion: in 1991, Guy Forget won the title.
A decade later, French fans witnessed their second Paris champion when Sebastien Grosjean won his only Masters 1000 title at the 2001 edition of the tournament.
Grosjean, seeded sixth at the tournament, defeated Dominik Hrbaty, Tommy Haas and Yevgeny Kafelnikov on his way to the title.
Seven years later, the French crowds witnessed the rise of another Paris Masters champion.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the last Frenchman to have won the Paris Masters
Former world number five Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his first Masters 1000 title at the 2008 Paris Masters.
The Frenchman, quite possibly one of the most talented players never to have won a Grand Slam title, defeated a host of top-class players to win the title in the French capital.
After receiving a bye to the second round, Tsonga battled through three-set matches against Radek Stepanek, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick on his way to the semi-final stage.
He then dispatched another American in the semi-final, defeating 11th seed James Blake 6-3, 6-4.
In the final, Tsonga defeated Argentine star David Nalbandian, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The Frenchman would have to wait six years before his second and last Masters 1000 triumph, which came at the 2014 Canadian Open.
French players have finished as runners-up four times since 2008
Gael Monfils was the next French player to reach the Paris Masters final. In fact, Monfils made two consecutive finals, in 2009 and 2010.
Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he lost both finals, to Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling.
In 2011, Tsonga returned to the final after defeating top seed Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals and American star John Isner in the last four.
Tsonga fell at the final hurdle, defeated 6-1, 7-6 by Roger Federer.
The Paris crowd waited 13 years for their next finalist. In 2024, Ugo Humbert reached the final, before losing to German superstar Alexander Zverev.
