Romain Arneodo and Manuel Guinard pulled off a historic victory in Monte-Carlo.

Manuel Guinard and Romain Arneodo won the Monte-Carlo Masters doubles title (Image: Getty)

Wildcard pair Romain Arneodo and Manuel Guinard capped off a dream week at the Monte-Carlo Masters on Sunday, being crowned champions. It was a historic victory for Monaco native Arneodo, who won his home tournament two years after he suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the final.

By lifting the title, the doubles partners have banked £252k (€290k) in prize money, more than five times their earnings so far this season. Before winning on home soil, Arneodo had pocketed just over £19k in prize money this year, while Frenchman Guinard had £25k in doubles earnings.

The Monegasque-French duo went on a remarkable run at the Country Club last week, taking out Australian Open champions Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten in the semi-final before saving a match point to beat No. 7 seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash in the final.

By lifting the title, the champions will share a huge £252k prize cheque, eclipsing their earnings for the year so far. Until now, their best results had been semi-finals at ATP 250 events in Marrakech and Montpellier.

Arneodo and Guinard are also set to receive 1,000 ranking points for being crowned Masters champions, and will rise to No. 43 and No. 36 respectively in the rankings, allowing them to enter some of the tour’s biggest events.

“Well, with the final we have played, things had changed already. We had improved our ranking a lot, and we were able to play all the ATP tournaments. This is what happened in 2023. We played only on the ATP Tour,” Arneodo said of his new ranking.

Manuel Guinard and Romain Arneodo’s Monte-Carlo prize cheque eclipses their 2025 earnings (Image: Getty)

Now I’m 40 or something, and he’s 30-something. It’s great. But what is important to me is winning this tournament with all the emotions with it.

“I can’t say I don’t care about the ranking, but if you have to choose between the ranking and winning this tournament, I would choose to win this tournament.

“Of course this will mean many changes for the future, but for the time being, I just want to celebrate.”

While the Monaco native was just happy to win his home tournament, French star Guinard believes his new career-high ranking could be a springboard for more success.

He added: “Being top 35 or 36, it means I can try for other things. But for the time being, I’m not thinking about it too much. I proved myself this week and during the past two years that I was able to play well in doubles.

“I already had important goals in doubles before and especially for this winter and for the next two years, so this is going to open doors for me, and I really hope I will be able to achieve those goals.”

Guinard has previously never cracked the world’s top 60 in doubles. He also competes in singles but has a career-high of No. 134.

After storming back from a set down in the championship match, he said: “I think the story is beautiful, because we were not favourites a single match we played here.

“We were able to pull out from very complicated situations, and we were able to win three super-tiebreakers over our matches. This is thanks to our attitude, and during this final, also the crowd helped us a lot.”