
The French financial services company extended its partnership with the French Tennis Federation (FFT) last year by a further five years, in a deal which sees it serve as the official and principal sponsor of the French Open until 2021.
According to sports news outlet SportBuzzBusiness.fr, the new series will be held in April, with competitions to be staged in France, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany, China, India and Brazil.
The competition will use a demo version of the Tennis World Tour video game, which will be officially released in May. The winners from each country will progress to a final staged at Roland Garros on 25th May, during this year’s French Open.
Meanwhile, Roland Garros has said that prize money for the French Open will be increased by €3 million (US$3.7 million) for the 2018 tournament, with the men’s and women’s singles champions set to win €2.2 million (US$7.1 million) each.
The 2018 Australian Open offered a 10 per cent increase in the total prize money pool for the opening Grand Slam of the year. The total figure rose to AU$55 million (US$42.8 million) from AU$50 million (US$38.6 million).
In July, the US Open further established itself as the most lucrative of tennis’ four Grand Slams when it announced that the total prize money for the 2017 tournament would be US$50.4 million.
By sportingindustry.co.za