Former champs Wawrinka, Fognini among Monte-Carlo wild cards

Former Top 10 stars with plenty of Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters pedigree are among the wild cards for the 2025 edition of the clay-court ATP Masters 1000.

The 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka and 2019 titlist Fabio Fognini will both compete in the main draw this year, the tournament announced on Wednesday. Former semi-finalist Richard Gasquet and home favourite Valentin Vacherot have also received wild cards.

The three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka lifted his only ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo 11 years ago, when he famously defeated his countryman Roger Federer in the championship match. The Swiss star, who turned 40 last week, earned his first tour-level match win of the season on Tuesday at the Tiriac Open presented by UniCredit Bank in Bucharest.

Fognini became the first Italian to claim a singles trophy in Masters 1000 series history (since 1990) with his Monte-Carlo title run six years ago. During the tournament, he defeated record-11-time champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. The former No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings holds a 21-12 record in the Principality, where he also reached the semi-finals in 2013 (l. to Djokovic).

The 38-year-old Gasquet may never have lifted the trophy in Monte-Carlo, but his stellar career is nonetheless firmly intertwined with the event. Aged just 15, he defeated Franco Squillari in the first round in 2002 to become the youngest match winner since the start of the ATP Tour in 1990, a record that still stands today.

Three years later, Gasquet stunned then-World No. 1 Federer in the quarter-finals before falling to his fellow 18-year-old Nadal in the last four. This will be Gasquet’s final Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters appearance, with the Frenchman set to retire following Roland Garros this year.