The list of players set to take to the clay courts of the Monte-Carlo Country Club in April for the 117th edition of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters has been announced. Here’s who made the cut.
Tournament Director David Massey had the honour of revealing the list of participants at the upcoming Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, which will be held from 6th to 14th April, at an exclusive luncheon at the Pré Catelan Lenôtre in Paris on 12th March.
Included on the roster are men’s tennis’ biggest stars, such as the Top 3 seeded players of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as well as World No.4 and notorious court rebel Daniil Medvedev.
Other Top 10 ranked players who will also appear on the famous clay courts are Andrey Rublev, who won his first Masters 1000 title last year in Monaco, Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune, Hubert Hurkacz, Caser Rudd and Alex de Minaur.
Perennial crowd favourite Rafael Nadal is also expected to play, marking a return to the courts after more than a year on the side lines. He was forced to withdrawal from the Australian Open in January, having suffered from a muscle tear on his hip.
Among the French players to feature are 14th ranked Ugo Humbert, 21st seeded Adrian Mannarino and Arthur Fils, who is currently in 43rd place in the ATP Rankings.
Following on from a new set-up introduced at the 2023 tournament, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters’ team will be offering spectators services such as a click-and-collect fast food catering option as well as deluxe dinners in the new covered dining area for fans seeking a more elegant alternative. On the day of the finals, Michelin-starred Chef Frédéric Anton of Le Jules Vernes in Paris will be in charge of the menu.
The Masters, which officially start the annual clay court tennis season, was founded in 1897, and has been played at the Monte-Carlo Country Club since 1928. It is now under the Presidency of Mélanie-Antoinette de Massy, who took over the position after the death of her mother, Elizabeth-Ann de Massy, in 2020.
Greta Gerwig will be the first American female director to take on the role of Jury President when the Cannes Film Festival takes over the French Riviera this May.
Following a year in which she beat every record with her film ‘Barbie’, the American director, screenwriter, and actress Greta Gerwig is to preside over the feature film Competition Jury of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, which takes place 14th to 25th May.
She will be the first American female director to take on the role of Jury President at the Festival de Cannes and, at the age of 40, adds another record to her considerable list of awards: that of becoming the youngest person to take on the task since Sofia Loren only aged 31 in 1966, the second female director since Jane Campion in 2014, and the second American woman after Olivia de Haviland in 1965.
Gerwig is a movie fan
A heroine of our modern times, Greta Gerwig shakes up the status quo between a highly codified cinema industry and an era demanding great expansiveness. And she’s a cinephile.
“I love films – I love making them, going to them, talking about them,” said Gerwig in a statement. “As a cinephile, Cannes has always been the pinnacle of what the universal language of movies can be. Being vulnerable in a dark theater filled with strangers and watching a brand-new film is my favorite place to be. I am stunned, thrilled, and humbled to serve as the Cannes Film Festival Jury president. I cannot wait to see what journeys are in store for all of us!”
Greta Gerwig, photo credit: Ben Rayner
Greta Gerwig has gained recognition in American and worldwide cinema in less than 15 years. Originally from Sacramento, California, but a New Yorker by adoption, she dreamed of being a playwright and crafted her path toward the heights of brilliance with both consistency and a taste for risk.
Yesterday, ambassador of independent American cinema, today at the summit of worldwide box-office success, Greta Gerwig manages to combine what was previously judged incompatible: delivering arthouse blockbusters, narrowing the gap between art and industry, exploring contemporary feminist issues with deft as well as depth, and declaring her demanding artistic ambition from within an economic model that she embraces to put to better use.
She can do it all: acting, writing, and directing
Whether acting, writing, or directing, her artistic endeavors have recurrent leitmotifs, such as family upheaval, adolescent rites of passage, fear of loss of social status, or the emergence of artistic vocation via free characters, sometimes fragile and marginal, but also fierce.
Starting as an actress, Greta Gerwig became a screenwriter working on various projects. She co-wrote ‘Hannah Takes the Stairs’ (2007) and ‘Nights and Weekends’ (2008), which she also co-directed, then Frances Ha (2012), ‘Mistress America’ (2015), and, of course, Barbie with Noah Baumbach, her accomplice in art.
Her first solo work, ‘Lady Bird’ (2017) – a striking, tender, and melancholy portrait of adolescence’s torments, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director.
For her second film, Greta Gerwig ambitiously took hold of the American literature classic from 1868 by Louisa May Alcott, ‘Little Women’, again to take a fresh look at all the story’s female protagonists, to better examine their emancipation in a world dominated by men. In a double reading, the director also subtly discusses her place within the cinema system and the compromises required for commercial success to appeal to a mass audience.
Finally, her most recent feature film was released in July 2023, the tornado ‘Barbie’ plows the same furrow in even more spectacular fashion by facing up to that ambivalent idol of small girls, a symbol of the female-as-object, but also of woman-emancipated. In this fierce satire about the human condition, Great Gerwig nails everyday sexism and stereotypes with joyful intent. An international cultural phenomenon, ‘Barbie’ is the most significant success of the year and has made Greta Gerwig the most lucrative female film director in history.
Xavier Dolan, photo credit: Shayne Laverdiere
Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is back
“Let’s hold on to our dreams because together, we can change the world. Anything is possible for those who dare, work, and never give up.” With this statement, filmmaker Xavier Dolan received the Jury Prize for Mommy at the 67th Festival de Cannes in 2014. At the helm of the Un Certain Regard Jury, he will celebrate the thirst for discovery and passion for other’s talent.
It was an obvious choice: Xavier Dolan’s filmmaking found its maturity in his extreme youth and boldness, of the kind that opens a world of possibilities, believing more in dreams than reality, and finding a way to rise to their creative ambitions.
“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” said Xavier Dolanin a statemen. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. In this responsibility, I can focus with the Un Certain Regard Jury members on an essential aspect of the art of film: stories told truthfully.”
Nolan is an Autodidact
Self-taught, he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his first feature film, ‘I Killed My Mother’, at 19. Adapted from a short story he had written a few years earlier, this trial stroke was a master one and was chosen to represent Canada for the Academy Awards. In 2010, he revealed his multifaceted talent by being responsible for his second film’s art direction, costumes, and editing. With ‘Heartbeats’, he first entered Un Certain Regard when he was just 21.
Two years later, ‘Laurence Anyways’, which premiered at Un Certain Regard, won the section’s award for Best Actress ex-aequo for Suzanne Clément. His first award in Cannes highlighted Xavier Dolan’s delicate sense for directing actors and actresses, with whom he has developed loyal, intense collaborations.
‘Mommy’ Gave new exceptional roles to Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clément after the psychological thriller ‘Tom at the Farm’. This 5th feature –his first in Competition– depicts a single mother’s difficulties raising her son. With deep emotion and poetry, he received the Jury Prize tied with Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Goodbye to Language’ from the hand of New Zealand director Jane Campion. With this choice, the Jury rewarded both the oldest (84) and the youngest (25) filmmakers in Competition, proving that originality is not the prerogative of youth, nor maturity that of experience. The following year, Xavier Dolan joined the Jury chaired by the Coen brothers at the 68th Festival de Cannes.
His return to directing sounded like a new declaration of love to actors and audiences alike. ‘It’s Only the End of the World’, an adaptation of Jean-Luc Lagarce’s play, was awarded the Grand Prix at the 69th Festival de Cannes. His fascination with acting can also be found in his following two films. ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’ is the story of a young boy’s correspondence with his favorite actor, and ‘Matthias & Maxime’, presented in Competition in 2019.
He played a few notable roles for other filmmakers, including Xavier Giannoli’s ‘Lost Illusions’, which earned him a nomination for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2022, Xavier Dolan directed his first TV series, ‘The Night Logan Woke Up.’
Nathan Jones’ life changed forever when the military aircraft he was piloting went into a nosedive with 190 people on board. What happened next took courage and strength, but it was nothing compared to the journey that awaited him. This is the story behind Nathan Jones and Peak State, the mental wellness movement backed by Prince Harry.
Physical and mental performance were everything to Nathan Jones. After completing a university degree in sports psychology and science, the British national played professional rugby and served over 17 years in the military as a pilot, flying UK operational squadrons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya.
But in 2014, Nathan suffered a devastating injury, putting his physical and mental strength to their biggest test yet.
Monaco Life: Can you tell us about the moment that changed your life?
Nathan Jones: I was flying a transport plane called a Voyager; it’s a military-adapted Airbus A330 that I’m sure you’ve travelled on for holidays many times. We were flying troops from RAF Brize Norton, which is in the Cotswolds in the middle of the UK, out to Camp Bastion, a former British Army airbase in Helmand province, Afghanistan. It was a routine flight with a mixture of military passengers, aid workers, press and UN Commonwealth troops.
We were flying at night so that we were not a visible target. At around the halfway point – flying over the Black Sea with Turkey to my right and Georgia in front – a friend of mine came in to the cockpit to say hello. I suggested we go have a cup of tea in the front galley, so I took my break, did my checks and handed over control of the plane to the captain. I was the co-pilot at the time.
We went into the kitchen at the front of the plane when, all of a sudden, everyone who wasn’t strapped in hit the roof. The plane was in a dive and heading towards the sea. I had to crawl along the roof, in through the cockpit door, which was thankfully open because it was a military flight, and I went from a brightly lit cabin to a pitch-black cockpit with flashing lights. Everything that was not strapped in was stuck on the roof, and I was just staring at a dark sea coming quickly towards us. My feet were on the roof as we regained control and I pulled the plane out of the dive. Then, my body went straight into the footwell of the seat.
The plane flew in on a mayday to an American Air Force Base on the Turkish-Syrian border. I didn’t really know what damage my body had suffered at first. I knew I’d split my head open as I’d left a smear of blood along the roof from my journey there to the controls. But later on, I found out that I’d broken the sacroiliac and lumbar part of my back.
There were 198 people onboard, so it would have been a really bad day at work if we’d gone into the sea. But thankfully we didn’t.
The Airbus A330 voyager that Nathan Jones was piloting when it went into a nosedive with 190 souls onboard.
What caused the plane to go into a nosedive?
The other pilot got something jammed in the controls – a camera – without him realising, and when he moved his seat forwards it knocked the stick in full deflection forward and we went into a dive. We didn’t know what was going on, we were stuck in a dive and going pretty quickly at the same time. So yeah, there were a lot of scared people on board, including me.
But the moral of the of the story is, I was in a physically and mentally fit place beforehand. It’s amazing how you can go from hero to zero very quickly. It’s a long road back from a traumatic event: there’s the physical recovery that you’re going through, but really the most important and toughest road is the mental battle.
What kind of mental support were you receiving from the military?
The military has very good rehab centres. I spent most of my time at a place called Hedley Court, just south of London. It had everything you could wish for: hydrotherapy pools, swimming pools with retractable floors, anti-gravity runners.. the physical side was completely covered.
The mental side of recovery was covered as well, but you’re a permanent resident there – in a room, fed and watered. It’s a long road to recovery, so it’s your job, it’s all day.
My clinician was the Team GB doctor for the Invictus Games, an international competition set up by Prince Harry in 2014 for wounded, injured and sick service men and women. I was finding the recovery a real grind, so I was encouraged to enter the games.
Nathan Jones and Prince Harry at the 2016 Invictus Games Orlando finals
At the time, I was being told I was never going to run again, I was barely going to be able to walk, that I couldn’t do this or couldn’t do that. Every day was yet another thing that I was being told what I couldn’t do rather than what I could.
So, getting into a competitive sporting setup again was the opposite of that. You’re told all the things that you can do; you’re encouraged to strive to do things, and it’s a proactive way of looking at recovery, because doing sport is not just the physical, it’s all the different aspects of it.
The power of sport is certainly something that people underestimate, and I found it completely life changing. I’d say that everyone who has done the Invictus Games has had different but the same experiences.
So, I ended up competing in 2016 in Orlando and 2017 in Toronto. I was doing cycling and swimming – not sports that I was necessarily used to competing in – and then suddenly I was competing live on ESPN and it was being beamed all around the world. I had to make sure that I was performing at my best just for that, let alone the will to want to win and do my best. It was an amazing experience.
Once again, you pushed your body to the limits. What happened next?
The last thing that my surgeon said to me before I left for Orlando was: “Whatever you do, don’t fall off your bike!”. I was in the road race at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, and the race was about 45 minutes long. We were doing laps of the circuit and on the last lap I was feeling good, bearing in mind I didn’t have a background in cycling racing, but I was feeling pretty fit and strong so I kicked it up, went around and got into first place, weaving through the last few corners. Keep in mind, I’d been around this track for 45 minutes by then and I was going fast.
I got the last corner wrong and smashed into the fence. I was well clear at that point, I could have just unclipped and cruised over the finish line. But instead, I hit the barrier and cartwheeled down the finishing straight. I smashed my bike to pieces – I don’t know how many pieces – my back wheel bounced down the road and I was lying in a heap. I went to hospital on a spinal board and, because I was in America, the medical system presented me with a $96,000 medical bill. Thankfully, the team insurance picked that up. But my surgeon watched it on TV and one of the first messages I received was, “You’ve done exactly what I told you not to!”.
I was fine though. It knocked me out, but I did manage to compete a few days later in the swimming pool. I was probably doing zigzags down the lane, but I did manage to do OK. And then Toronto went far better and I got some medals there.
Nathan Jones served in the UK military before suffering a broken back during a nosedive
Where did the idea for Peak State come from then? You clearly had the physical fitness, but how did you manage to balance that with mental wellness?
David Wiseman, the co-founder, and I were both working at the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Duke and Duchess of Sussex in London, and one of the programmes that we were looking at was the mental health provision for the UK Armed Forces. We found there was a lot of reparatory stuff: for people who were suffering from mental ill health, which is really what people think of in terms of mental health around the world. People instantly think mental ill health rather than mental health. But everyone has mental health, whether it is good or bad or indifferent, people are somewhere on that spectrum.
So, the military had a lot of reparatory stuff for people who were suffering from common mental disorders: anxiety, depression, stress, and post-traumatic stress from conflict or otherwise. But there was very little pre-emptive mental health work and treatment initiatives looking at the proactive approach to good mental health. Through the Royal Foundation in partnership with the MOD, a programme called Head Fit was created, which is still going now. It’s an annual training that all of the personnel in the UK go through, a scientific approach backed by psychology and science to look at healthy habits throughout the day and give people the tools and techniques in order to perform at their best.
We then decided that it was something that we wanted to do on a global level because we were very passionate about giving the general public the opportunity to perform at their best. Our mantra is to create a global community that understands the importance of mental fitness and the importance of attaining it.
When I say mental fitness, I am talking about your brain, your mental capacity, like a muscle. Your physical fitness and mental fitness should be discussed in the same context, looking at your mind like a muscle that you have to train.
It’s all about repetition, making things simple, easy and fun, something that you enjoy doing.
You can look at it like prehab rather than rehab. Why send someone into battle with no armour? With these tools and techniques that we’re trying to instil in people, if something bad happens to them, which it does to everyone at some point in their life, then they’ve got the foundations to mentally handle it. They can use these tools and techniques to get back to their peak state.
Nathan Jones (far right) playing for the national rugby team
Prince Harry has been very vocal about mental health, and the struggles that he has personally had after the death of his mother Princess Diana, and the flow-on effect from that. How important is it to have the backing of such a large personality like Prince Harry?
Yes, Prince Harry has been a very passionate campaigner for mental health for over a decade now and he has achieved great things in this arena of mental health, from mental ill health and breaking down those boundaries and stigmas to the mental fitness arena of what we’re doing now. He has been championing Peak State right from the start, even the naming of it all the way through to the structure of what we’re doing.
Having someone that is so passionate about a topic like that is invaluable and he really does bring a passion and certainly a breadth of knowledge on the subject through lived and learned experiences.
But also, for obvious reasons, he is a well-respected member of the royal family.
He talks about mental health topics in his book, Spare, but having someone of his stature involved certainly breaks down barriers and opens up communities and conversations around the world for us, which is what we’re trying to do: to create a global community. So, yes, it’s fantastic having him involved.
Did you know Prince Harry in the military?
I’ve known Prince Harry for a long time, from serving with him in the UK military, through to the Invictus Games and working for him at the Royal Foundation, to now working together with Peak State. We go back a long way, as does David. He worked at the Royal Foundation for 10 years.
Can you go into more detail about Peak State and the kind of services that it provides?
We launched Peak State in Australia in 2020 with the prime minister at the time, Scott Morrison, in the aftermath of the summer bushfires. It was highlighting the amazing work of the first responders and how they’d performed at their best. We then partnered with the Greek Royal Family, Princess Tatiana of Greece, and created a platform for the Greek population. We’ve now launched a Peak State app, which is a toolkit that people can use on a daily basis. It can be scenario based, so if you are about to make a public speech or go into an important meeting or sporting event, you can dip into your pocket and quickly go through a breathwork exercise or visualisation and change the way that you’re perceiving things so that you’re firing on all cylinders.
We are also launching our online training programmes for both professionals and for schools.
Do you feel like there is finally a shift happening in society with regards to mental health, or is there still a long way to go?
There’s still a long way to go, but the conversation has changed, and over the last decade there has been a polar shift in the way that people perceive mental fitness and mental health thanks to a huge amount of work by charities and foundations around the world to de-stigmatise mental health and mental ill health.
What we’re trying to do is just change the dial again and look at it in a proactive way rather than a reactive way.
To find out more information on Peak State, visit: peakstate.org.
Monaco has welcomed four new ambassadors, from Slovakia, Venezuela, Romania and Belgium, into its circle of international diplomats.
On Tuesday 12th March, diplomats from Slovakia, Venezuela, Romania and Belgium officially began their tenure in the Principality by presenting their Letters of Credence to Prince Albert II of Monaco. This formal occasion was followed by a celebratory luncheon hosted by Isabelle Berro Amadeï, Monaco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, at the Hôtel Hermitage.
Who are the new ambassadors?
Slovakia’s new representative in Monaco, Jan Soth, began his diplomatic career in 1984. Since then, he has held significant overseas positions in Romania and France, which led to ambassadorial duties in multiple countries. In the past, he has also worked as the Secretary-General to the President of Slovakia.
Venezuela’s contribution to the newly appointed diplomatic ensemble is Arturo Enrique Gil Pinto, whose skills combine an engineering background with diplomatic expertise. Pinto is also the current Ambassador of Venezuela to France.
Ioana Bivolaru, who will represent Romanian interests and communications in Monaco, has over 25 years of experience in the diplomatic service. She played an instrumental role in Romania’s accession to the EU.
Lastly, Belgium’s Jo Indekeu brings a wealth of experience to Monaco, having held similar roles in Jordan, Iraq and Hungary.
Left to right: Jo Indekeu, Ambassador of Belgium; Ioana Bivolaru, Ambassador of Romania; Isabelle Berro Amadeï, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; Jan Soth, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic; Arturo Enrique Gil Pinto, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Photo credit: Manuel Vitali / Monaco Communications Department
Extra parking spaces on the Rock are opened to the public
In early March, a delegation from Monaco’s Economic Development Department headed up to the Rock, the part of Monaco that houses the Palais Princier and the Oceanographic Museum, to open a section of the Visitation car park to the public. The move should help to – if only slightly – ease traffic and parking issues in Monaco-Ville.
Alleviating Monaco’s chronic traffic and parking problems is a top priority for the Monegasque government, as evidenced by the detailed Plan Mobilité or Transport Solutions report that was released in February 2024.
Given that close to 50,000 vehicles enter and leave the Principality each day, finding room to safely house them all is a complicated task, particularly in the neighbourhoods that are most constricted in terms of available space.
Monaco-Ville is one of the most affected, and finding a parking space up on the Rock can prove very difficult, especially during peak seasons.
Now, steps are being taken to ease this pressure on the current car parks, with the announcement that 20 spaces within the Parking de la Visitation, a car park usually strictly reserved for local residents, have been opened to the public.
The spaces will be exclusively available after 6pm on weekdays as well as throughout the day on weekends and public holidays.
Those hoping to find a space should speak first with the car park supervisor in order to ensure that a spot is free before entering the facility.
On International Women’s Rights Day, the Women of Monaco Lunch and Awards paid tribute to the outstanding contributions of women living in and representing the Principality on the world stage.
The Women of Monaco Lunch and Awards, held at the Yacht Club de Monaco on 8th March in honour of International Women’s Rights Day, was organised by Sandrine Knoell of Five Stars Events.
Through her Women of Monaco Club, Knoell brought together a community of like-minded but certainly diverse women for the event, and all were there to celebrate female solidarity and empowerment.
“A difference in our community”
One of the central elements of this year’s event was the Women of Monaco Awards, which acknowledged the work and efforts of women from a range of fields and backgrounds.
The 2024 WOMA trophies
Charlotte Casiraghi, the daughter of Princess Caroline, won the Culture Award for her cultural contributions; Federica Beretta received the Art Award for her work in the arts; Isabelle Bonnal was honoured with the Education Award for advancing educational opportunities; Cecilia Bartoli, the director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, took home the Music Award; Louisette Levy-Soussan Azzoaglio received the Charity Award for her humanitarian efforts; Adriana Karembeu Sklenarikova was awarded the Image Award for her media presence; Christine Sprile earned the Career Award for her professional achievements; Patricia Jutheau Husson was recognised with the Entrepreneur Award for her business success; and Oxana Girko won the Philanthropy Award for her philanthropic commitments.
“These ladies are an example of dedication, determination, excellence and inspiration, and they have clearly made a difference in our community,” Knoell said of the winners.
The WOMA Lunch is a celebration of inspiring women
The luncheon also acted as a showcase for the sustainable fashion designs of Monaco-based artist Camilla Ghione, blending art with fashion in a celebration of female creativity and leadership.
The event garnered significant support from local and international partners, including Barclays Private Bank, Artcurial and Valmont Cosmetics.
An auction conducted by Artcurial at the event featured an array of unique items, such as a signed photograph of Edith Piaf and a portrait of Monaco’s Princess Grace, with all proceeds going to the Princess Grace Foundation.
