Zeljko Franulovic Announces Record Attendance

© Getty Images

Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Tournament Director, Zeljko Franulovic, announced a record-breaking attendance of 125,000 spectators and reviewed the 2011 edition in a press conference on Sunday morning.

ZELJKO FRANULOVIC:  Good morning and welcome to this press briefing at the end of the tournament.  It is a good opportunity for me to tell you on behalf of the tournament direction and committee that we thank you for your loyalty.

I will now give you the results of this 105th edition of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters:

First I will talk about the various events that have been marking this edition.  As the tradition says, our tournament proposed during the week various social events.  First we have the Players' Evening.  As usual, many players participated in this evening.  One after the other, they went on the stage and they demonstrated that they were not only high level athletes but real artists and comedians.

I would like to remind you that this special evening event is exclusively reserved for the players.  This is exclusive to our tournament for the past 60 years.  We are really determined to keep that special part of our tournament.

We also had 'La Grande Nuit du Tennis' that was organized with the Spanish company Antonio Najarro and the participation of singer Luz Casal.  This was to pay a tribute to the 14 victories of Hispanic players in our tournament since the Open Era.

The tournament committee also focused on increasing the number of activities outside of the courts.  On Monday, for example, for the Woman's Day, an exhibition match on center court was organized between the Danish player Caroline Wozniacki, who is presently No. 1 in the world, and the Italian player Francesca Schiavone, who was the winner of the French Open in 2010.  That was a true delight for our female public and for everyone else.

Also a very important moment in our tournament was the audience that his Serene Highness Albert of Monaco gave to Rafael Nadal in the private garden of the Prince's palace on Sunday the 10th of April.  The day before, Tomas Berdych was able to discover sailing onboard a yacht called 'Tuiga', which is the admiral vessel of the Yacht Club of Monaco.

With the participation of 8 out of 10 top players in the world, we were blessed once again with an exceptional draw.  I would like to remind you that just one week before the tournament, we reached the record figure of 10 out of 10.  Unfortunately, Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling had to pull out of because of injuries.

We must say that Novak, who is a Monaco resident, stayed with us the whole week.  Apparently his knee is now getting better and he's starting to practice little by little again.  We wish him, as well as Robin, to get better very soon.

I would like also to take this opportunity to thank once again all the players who showed time and again how this tournament was very dear to them and how they are attached to this tournament.

The success of this 105th edition was confirmed because the record figure we had before of 124,000 spectators was broken.  This year we had 125,000 spectators.  We are extremely satisfied with this public attendance.  From now on, this figure will be the benchmark for future editions.

We also were able to see that there was a strong increase in the public relations packages.  They were doubled compared with 2010.  We also had a great success with the boxes, 272 boxes.  All of them were booked long before the tournament.

Also, online reservations was a great success.  Thanks to that, we were able to, in fact, close the sales of center court tickets one month before the tournament.  We had connection peaks at 3600 simultaneous orders.

A direct consequence of those online sales was that we had this year a more international public, from the United States, from the United Kingdom, from eastern Europe, from Nordic countries and Spain.

That internationalization also happened with the media coverage.  We had, for example, a press trip that was organized with 15 Chinese media.  It was organized by our title sponsor, Rolex.  Another example is the Spanish journalists from Lifestyle Magazine who came thanks to the initiative of Façonnable.

But the main thing:  The press tennis tournament organized in cooperation with Dunlop this year.  We had 15 players, not only men, but also women.  We can say 2011 was 'under the charm of women'.

Once again, I would like to thank all of you very warmly and would like to make an appointment with you for the next edition of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters which will take place from the 14th to the 22nd of April 2012.

Before giving the floor away, I am available if you have any questions or I will be available for individual questions.

Read full transcript