On Monday, the 2025 Paris Masters will begin, marking the 53rd edition of the tournament, which has seen some unlikely winners.
In 2022, then-teenager Holger Rune won his first Masters title in the French capital, beating Carlos Alcaraz en route to the final, where he triumphed over Novak Djokovic.
Former American star Jack Sock won a maiden Masters 1000 crown in 2017 at the event, becoming the first American to triumph at the premium level since Andy Roddick in 2010.
During the 2003 season, one unseeded ATP star went all the way at the Paris Masters, having never made it past the third round of the tournament before that.
Tim Henman’s triumph at the 2003 Paris Masters
Prior to 2003, six-time Grand Slam semifinalist Tim Henman had never made it past the third round at the Paris Masters.
The event was one of two Masters 1000 competitions he had failed to reach the quarterfinals at until then, with the Briton also finding little joy at the Italian Open throughout his career.
| Event | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| Indian Wells | – | – | 1R | QF | 2R | 3R | F |
| Miami | 2R | 1R | SF | 3R | QF | 2R | 4R |
| Monte-Carlo | – | – | 1R | 2R | 2R | QF | SF |
| Rome | – | 2R | 2R | 3R | 2R | 2R | 1R |
| Hamburg | – | – | 2R | QF | 3R | 1R | 2R |
| Canada | 3R | 1R | SF | 2R | 1R | 2R | 3R |
| Cincinnati | 2R | 1R | 1R | QF | F | SF | 2R |
| Stuttgart/Madrid | 1R | 3R | 2R | 2R | 3R | QF | 2R |
| Paris | 1R | 2R | 2R | 3R | 2R | 2R | 3R |
Henman’s 2003 campaign was not quite going to plan, with one quarterfinal finish at a Grand Slam, and several early exits at Masters.
That all changed in Paris, however, where Henman would finally clinch a maiden Masters 1000 title, in a run that saw him claim a fifth career win over Roger Federer.
The former British number one won his first-round match in straight sets against Nikolay Davydenko, and followed it up with a narrow victory over seventh seed Sebastien Grosjean.
He then clinched another straight-sets win against three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten to set up a quarterfinal clash with Federer.
In his bout with the Swiss legend, Henman emerged victorious in the first-set tiebreak, which gave him the momentum to take the second set by a convincing six games to one.
Henman was pitted against Roddick in the semifinals of the 2003 Paris Masters, whom he had lost to in the first round of the US Open earlier that year.
Against the American, he secured the triumph with two tiebreak victories to reach his third Masters final.
- Round of 64 – Beats Davydenko 6-3, 6-4
- Round of 32 – Beats Grosjean 3-6, 6-4, 7-5
- Round of 16 – Beats Kuerten 6-4, 6-2
- Quarterfinals – Beats Federer 7-6, 6-1
- Semifinals – Beats Roddick 7-6, 7-6
In the championship match, Henman came up against another unseeded player in the form of Andrei Pavel, who was competing in his second Masters final.
The Romanian gave his best efforts, but ultimately could not find an answer for Henman, who hoisted the trophy after winning the best-of-five match 6-2, 7-6, 7-6.
Tim Henman’s reflection on the 2003 Paris Masters
In a recent interview with the LTA, Henman said of his campaign in Paris that year: “I think it was probably some of the best tennis I ever played.
“What’s funny is that I had lost in the quarters at Basel the week before, and I felt like I played a particularly bad match and wasn’t in a particularly good place.
“I think the quarters and the semis against Federer and Roddick, the quality of play and the way I executed my game plan helped me win a lot of the important points in those matches. I take a lot of satisfaction looking back on that.”
“To win that, it set me up well going into 2004, which ended up probably being my best year.”
In 2004, Henman made two Grand Slam semifinals, reached the final of Indian Wells, and ended the year as the world number six.
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