The WTA Tour already has a tournament that could replicate the ATP Tour’s Monte Carlo Masters.
Following the conclusion of the Miami Open, where Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner made tennis history, the clay court season got underway.
In the lead up to the French Open, there are three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments on clay, but only two WTA 1000 tournaments on the surface.
The ATP Tour has the Monte Carlo Masters, and the WTA already has a readymade tournament that would be perfect to take place at the same time.
The WTA should make the Charleston Open a 1000 level tournament
The Charleston Open is holding its 54th edition this week, and is showing why it is one of the best WTA 500 tournaments on the calendar.
There have been packed crowds throughout the opening couple of days of the tournament, including for doubles matches, which can sometimes have quieter atmospheres.
This was certainly not the case for the doubles match between Jessica Pegula and Asia Muhammad against Jennifer Brady and Erin Routliffe, with the court packed full of fans and queues of people waiting to see if a seat would appear.
Great tennis crowds can be hard to come by, but the Charleston Open is clearly not struggling in this capacity.
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The Charleston Open has also proven that it can handle being a WTA 1000 tournament, having been at this level for 29 years until 2009, with Serena Williams the last player to win the title as a Masters equivalent event.
This would be the ideal alternate for the WTA Tour to have a similar week 1000 event like the Monte Carlo Masters.
However, for this to be suitable for WTA players it would need to be both non-mandatory and a week later in the calendar to give a week off after the Sunshine Double.
The WTA Tour actually used to play in Monte Carlo
While the Charleston Open would be the perfect solution to have a third WTA 1000 tournament on clay, the Monte Carlo Masters did actually used to host a women’s event.
This took place between 1896 to 1982, with Virginia Ruzici as the last champion of the tournament.
There have been discussions about whether the WTA Tour could return to the Monte Carlo Masters, with the tournament director suggesting that this was not on the cards last year.
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Instead, the Monte Carlo Masters is set to remain as exclusively an ATP Tour event, with the main draw getting underway on April 5.
There is a lot of excitement around the tournament this year, with the world number one ranking on the line, as Jannik Sinner looks to dethrone Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the ATP rankings.
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