My Preview of Montpellier (ATP 250)
Montpellier’s indoor hard courts appeared historically slow, but 2025 data suggests a clear speed shift, likely from resurfacing. This faster conditions should favour big servers.
Montpellier began hosting an ATP 250 event since 2010. In 2012, the indoor hard tournament relocated to the Sud de France Arena, a multi-purpose venue with 14,000 total capacity.
Montpellier is played on indoor hard courts.
Speed Statistics
These are the averages of the last 5 years:
- 72.4% Points won on 1st Serve
- 79.5% Service Hold
- 0.58 Aces/Game
- 0.21 Tie-breaks / Set
However, in this case, simply presenting the aggregated data is not the best approach.
Why?
Because if we exclude 2025, Montpellier had historically been the slowest indoor event on the ATP circuit, according to the data. However, last season’s numbers look contradictory.
In 2025 we saw 76.4% of points won on first serve, compared with 69.5% in 2024, 73.6% in 2023, 71.0% in 2022, and 71.1% in 2021.
Could this be variance? It could be, but a gap that large is not likely attributable to randomness alone.
Moreover, I also checked the qualifying matches, and...
In 2025, first serve points won in the qualies jumped to 71.9%, whereas in previous years the average had been around 68.5%. This suggests a plausible explanation: a resurfacing that increased court speed?
I've checked the qualies data for this season and, at the time of writing, 8 qualifying matches have been played this week, with 72.5% of first serve points won. It’s a very small sample, but my intuition is that we’re likely to see courts playing fast again this year, similar to last season.
Past Winners
2025 Auger-Aliassime d. Kovacevic
2024 Bublik d. Coric
2023 Sinner d. Cressy
2022 Bublik d. Zverev
2021 Goffin d. Bautista
Historically it has been a great tournament for the French players. Gasquet has won here 3 times and played in another 3 finals. Monfils has also won the tournament 3 times. Bublik has won 2 of the past 3 editions.
Players Quotes
I usually share with you the statements from some players about the court conditions, but for this tournament, I just got this:
Griekspoor, 2025: "I’ve always played well here, felt well… I like the conditions. I like a roof above my head, the same as Rotterdam next week. It’s perfect for me to be here."
Mayot, 2024: "The ball was slow a bit on this court. The serve is not counting so much. You have to be ready from the baseline and I was more than him today.”
Summary
In summary, prior to 2025 Montpellier was consistently one of the slowest indoor events on the circuit.
However, last season’s data strongly suggests a resurfacing — I can’t confirm it, but the numbers make it a very reasonable assumption.
In fact, only three tournaments in the circuit -Stuttgart, Brussels and Queens recorded a higher percentage of first serve points won in 2025. And the qualification data for this edition might point in the same direction.
So keep a close eye on the big servers.
Draws
Here’s the link to the Qualies and Main draws — you can check it anytime to follow the latest updates and see which players advance through each round:
Qualies: https://www.protennislive.com/posting/2026/375/qs.pdf
Main Draw: https://www.protennislive.com/posting/2026/375/mds.pdf