How the ATP No. 1 Club offered a ‘memory of a lifetime’ with Muster in Monte-Carlo | ATP Tour

ATP Experiences

How the ATP No. 1 Club offered a ‘memory of a lifetime’ with Muster in Monte-Carlo

ATP Experiences will also offer No. 1 Club hospitality in Barcelona next week

April 09, 2026

There are not many opportunities to watch one of the world’s most historic tournaments and then pick the brain of a man who was once the world’s best player.

The ATP No. 1 Club gave Ray and Walker Sahag just that at the 2026 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. The two tennis coaches from Mississippi took advantage of the No. 1 Club premium hospitality on offer to tick visiting the clay ATP Masters 1000 event off their bucket list and enjoy spending time with one of their tennis heroes, former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Thomas Muster.

A premium hospitality option through ATP Experiences, the ATP No. 1 Club launched this week in Monte-Carlo and is also available for next week’s Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. The package pairs reserved seating with access to a dedicated hospitality venue, where guests can watch matches while also spending time in a private lounge.

Find out more about ATP No. 1 Club Barcelona 2026 packages

“I’ve coached at all four Grand Slams, but I had not been to Monte-Carlo,” Walker said. “For the two of us, it was the number one trip for our lifetime, number one on our bucket list for a place to go together. So as tennis fans, and for everybody back home it is the same thing. This venue, for true tennis aficionados, is considered to be the most beautiful venue in the world.”

_{^{Walker and Ray Sahag on Court Rainier III at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Photo: ATP Tour}}

ATP No. 1 Club packages also include opportunities to attend hosted discussions or small Q&A sessions with ATP executives, chair umpires or former World No. 1 players, offering a behind-the-scenes perspective on the Tour. Ray and Walker had the chance to meet former No. 1 Muster, the Austrian who was renowned for his clay-court prowess, as well as the way that he battled back from a serious traffic accident in 1989 to reach top spot seven years later.

“The best part for me was getting to see my favourite player of all time and getting to sit down with him and talk to him and ask him things,” Ray said. “How can you beat that? [After the morning meet] he came back in the afternoon with us and he was like, ‘Hey, is there anything else you want to talk about or ask’? He was so generous with his time and went out of his way to make us feel like we were really taken care of.”

Walker revealed she particularly enjoyed hearing Muster retell a famous on-court dispute she remembered the Austrian having with Brad Gilbert at the 1993 US Open.

“To hear him give the backstory to that incident was really fun and then we had so many more where we have followed him and his comeback,” she said, referring to Muster’s miraculous recovery from his 1989 injury. “How inspirational his comeback was to so many players.

“Every time we would have a player who was injured, we would show them what he fought through to get back, win the French Open and become No. 1 in the world. Every time we had someone seriously injured, we used his example to bring them back.”

There was another novel experience in store for Ray, Walker and Muster himself at Villa La Vigie, a historic property overlooking the Monte-Carlo Country Club. The location served as the venue for Monte-Carlo No. 1 Club hospitality.

“Being an architecture student, the design and having the chance to walk up and see such an epic building, such a historic building [was amazing],” Walker said. “Thomas Muster said he had waited all that time, waiting to get to go to that same place. That’s how special it was, even he had not had the opportunity to be there before. For us to get to walk in and see it was the memory of a lifetime.”

Ray added: “It’s got to be the most beautiful venue on the circuit… It’s the most beautiful town, the people are friendly, and that villa was spectacular.”