The Rome Masters (officially named as Internazionali BNL d'Italia) is an annual tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is the most prestigious red clay tennis tournament in the world after the French Open, with the men's competition being an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour, and the women's competition being a Premier 5 event on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. The two events were combined in 2011. The tournament is played on clay courts, currently during the second week of May. The event was previously known as the Rome Masters and adopted its present name in 2002. Rafael Nadal has won the title a record six times.
The Italian tennis championship was first held in 1930 in Milan, where it was played until 1934 before being moved to the Foro Italico in Rome in 1935. No event was held between 1936 and 1949. The competition resumed in 1950. It became "open" to professional players in 1969. Between 1970 and 1989 it was a premier tournament of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour and was part of the Grand Prix Championship Series top tier events. In 1990 it became an ATP Championship Series Single Week tournament.
Famous quotes containing the words italian and/or open:
“Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O’er all the Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“[Panurge] spent everything in a thousand little banquets and joyous feasts open to all comers, particularly jolly companions, young lasses, and delightful wenches, and in clearing his lands, burning the big logs to sell the ashes, taking money in advance, buying dear, selling cheap, and eating his wheat in the blade.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)