The French Tennis Federation has unveiled the 2024 Roland-Garros eSeries by Renault, a virtual tennis tournament on mobile game Tennis Clash.
The seventh edition of the tournament will take place on May 25th following open qualifiers.
For 2024, French automotive marque Renault becomes the presenting partner of the Roland-Garros Tennis eSeries alongside payment technology company Mastercard which has been named an ‘official partner’ of the tournament. The logos of both companies will be integrated into matches.
Once open qualification has concluded, eight players will compete in the Final Stage at Roland-Garros, the headquarters of the French Tennis Federation. Players will compete for a share of a €5,000 (~£4,272) prize pool. The Federation has revealed one of the two wildcard slots for the Final Stage is former professional tennis player Gilles Simon, who commentated on the 2023 edition of the Roland-Garros eSeries.
The Roland-Garros eSeries launched in 2018 with the aim of elevating tennis as an esports title. According to a release, ‘over 400,000 players’ took part in the qualifying stage for the 2023 tournament on Tennis Clash which has ‘5m monthly active users.’
The world of tennis continues to embark on various esports projects. In November 2023, professional player Daniil Medvedev became part of North American esports organisation M80’s ownership group.
Stéphane Barbat, Renault Global Marketing Partnership Director, spoke on partnering with the event: “We are very proud to become the title partner of Roland-Garros eSeries and to support the development of this esport competition.
“Video gaming has become an inevitable intergenerational activity and a popular brand like Renault naturally finds its place in it. For this occasion, we will provide Tennis Cash players with exclusive racket strings branded with Renault 5 colours, allowing them to boost their stamina and strength attributes.”
