Outside of the four Majors, Monte Carlo might just be the jewel in the crown of tennis: the most glamorous and arguably the most prestigious Masters tournament, whose centre court is not just the most beautiful stadium in tennis but quite possibly the most beautiful stadium in any sport. But who are the Kings of Monte Carlo – the most successful champions in the long history of the tournament?
If the number one on that list is relatively easy to guess, the other entrants certainly are not, but just because their names may not be instantly familiar does not mean that their stories are not fascinating. Indeed, given that one of them was a war hero in addition to being a top tennis player, their stories are probably more fascinating than those of many more familiar names.
Here then are the five Kings of Monte Carlo: the elite group of players who have won the most titles in the most glittering of Mediterranean settings.
- Stefanos Tsitsipas, Thomas Muster, Bjorn Borg, Ilie Năstase, Nicola Pietrangeli, Henri Cochet and Gordon Lowe (three titles each)
Until his quarterfinal defeat to Lorenzo Musetti, Stefanos Tsitsipas had the chance to break the tightest of logjams by winning Monte Carlo for a fourth time, but for now he remains one of seven players to have won the title three times. Even more remarkably, the other six players who he is currently tied with for joint fifth on the list of the most successful players in the history of the tournament are all Major winners, having each secured at least one Grand Slam singles title, something that Tsitsipas, of course, is yet to do.
Indeed, many of the other six players besides Tsitsipas to have won Monte Carlo three times won multiple Major singles titles. For example, Ilie Năstase won a hat-trick of titles in Monte Carlo between 1971 and 1973 in addition to his two Major Singles titles (one US Open and one French Open), while Bjorn Borg won three Monte Carlo titles out of four between 1977 and 1980, more or less coinciding with his four successive French Open titles between 1978 and 1981 (to go with the two Roland Garros titles that he won earlier in the decade in 1974 and 1975).
The records of Năstase and Borg hint at one of the main attractions of Monte Carlo. It always marks the start of the European clay court season, but it also often acts as a reliable marker of who will go on to win the French Open, either later in the season or later in their career. In fact, of the six men besides Tsitsipas to win three Monte Carlo titles, only Britain’s Gordon Lowe (who achieved his hat-trick in the early 1920s) failed to go on to triumph at Roland Garros. So, notwithstanding his failure to win a fourth Monte Carlo title in 2025, Tsitsipas will hope that one day he can translate his Monte Carlo form into Paris success.
- Laurence Doherty (four titles: 1900, 1901, 1905 and 1906)
Long before Andy and Jamie Murray, the first great British tennis brothers were the Dohertys, Laurence and Reginald, who between them won an extraordinary 10 Monte Carlo singles titles, sharing the title between themselves for a decade between 1897 and 1906. Laurence, the younger of the two, won four titles, twice winning the tournament in consecutive years.
Laurence Doherty did not just excel on clay, because he also won the Wimbledon singles title five times in succession between 1902 and 1906 and in addition became the first foreign player to win the US Championships (now the US Open) in 1903. And although he never won the French Open, he did achieve a remarkable hat-trick at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, when he won gold in both singles and doubles and a bronze in the mixed doubles.
Doherty was obviously one of the greatest sportsmen of his generation, but later in life he was bedevilled by illness and eventually killed by it. When World War I began in 1914, like so many other sportsmen at the time he signed up for military service, but less than a decade after his incredible achievements in tennis he was discharged from the armed forces because of poor health. He eventually died in 1919, aged just 43, having contracted both tubercular nephritis (a severe inflammation of the kidneys) and cystitis (a severe urinary tract illness).
- Anthony Wilding (five titles: 1908, 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1914)
New Zealander Anthony Wilding is not just one of the Kings of Monte Carlo but is often regarded as the first superstar of tennis, predating even Suzanne Lenglen and Bill Tilden, who between them did so much to promote the popularity of the sport globally after WWI. Wilding’s glory years came before The Great War, when he won not only five Monte Carlo titles but even more impressively four Wimbledon titles in succession between 1910 and 1913 and two Australian Championships (now the Australian Open) in 1906 and 1909.
Like so many Victorian and Edwardian sportsmen, Wilding was not just a tennis specialist but a great all-rounder, also excelling at cricket and motorcycling, but all of his sporting achievements were curtailed by WWI and eventually his life was ended by it. Like so many men from Britain’s empire at the time, he joined up almost immediately after war began in Europe and tragically was killed in May 1915, within the first year of the conflict, when an artillery shell struck the trench he was in.
- Reginald Doherty (six titles: 1897, 1898, 1899, 1902, 1903 and 1904)
Reginald, the older of the two Doherty brothers who dominated the first decade of the Monte Carlo tournament, was also the original “R.F.” of tennis (his middle name was Frank and like so many late Victorians and Edwardians he was known by his initials), over a century before the emergence of Roger Federer. And if R.F. Doherty couldn’t quite match the historic achievements of Federer, who became the first man to win 20 Major singles titles but never conquered Monte Carlo, he was still a truly great tennis player.
That is evidenced not only by his six Monte Carlo titles but by the four Wimbledon titles that he won in succession between 1897 and 1900, and by the three Olympic gold medals that he won in doubles and mixed doubles, including the gold that he won alongside younger brother Laurence in Paris in 1900.
Even this cursory summary of the Doherty brothers’ achievements is enough to prove that they were among the greatest tennis players of their era, which was really the beginning of tennis as we know it today. However, what is perhaps most astonishing about Reginald and Laurence is that they both suffered from respiratory problems throughout their lives, with Reginald dying at an even earlier age than Laurence (he was only 38 when he died in 1910). The fact that both Doherty brothers won multiple Monte Carlo titles and multiple Major singles titles while never being able to breathe properly is surely the ultimate testament to their unquenchable fighting spirit.
- Rafael Nadal (11 titles: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2018)
Rafael Nadal is truly the king of kings at Monte Carlo, having won the tournament an incredible 11 times (or nearly twice as much as the next man on this list), including a scarcely believable eight titles in a row between 2005 and 2012. That remarkable run was only ended by Novak Djokovic in 2013, when the great Serb was beginning to enter his own pomp as a player, but for good measure Nadal went on to win a further hat-trick of titles between 2016 and 2018.
Of course it is not surprising that Nadal should be the most successful player ever at Monte Carlo, given that he is also the most successful player at Roland Garros (with 14 French Open titles) and in Rome (with 10 titles). Indeed, his utter domination of what was the original “Triple Crown” of great clay-court tournaments, before the much later addition of Madrid (which he also won five times), is probably his greatest ever achievement as a tennis player and it is highly unlikely ever to be matched, let alone bettered. And the fact that the other three most successful men ever to play at Monte Carlo did so over a century ago is one of the best signs that his achievements were genuinely historic.
Main photo credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
