The French Tennis Federation (FFT) may not have found the vaccine against Covid-19, but it is convinced it has an antidote. “We are Roland-Garros, a daring tournament and we also want to give this image of a France which is capable of adapting and not falling into a disaster. We must not suffer, we must bring back a little life “, enthusiastically Monday September 7 in The team its president, Bernard Giudicelli.
At the beginning of July, the organizers of Roland-Garros – postponed to the fall due to the pandemic – hoped to be able to welcome 20,000 spectators per day. Two months later, faced with the deterioration of the health situation, they had to revise their ambitions downwards. The public will be limited to a maximum of 11,500 people, they announced Monday, three weeks before the kickoff of the tournament (September 27-October 11), or 30% of the usual daily tonnage.
Not really the festive conditions imagined to inaugurate the retractable roof which now covers the central. But it’s a lesser evil compared to its Grand Slam cousins: the 2020 edition of Wimbledon has been canceled for the first time since World War II, and the US Open, which ends Sunday, September 13, has been forced to argue behind closed doors.
Since the resumption of the circuit in August, the Parisian Grand Slam will be the first tournament to reconnect with the public. Apart from the cancellation of the mixed doubles and the “tournament of legends”, all of the usual programming has been maintained, although the qualifications will be held behind closed doors.
The stadium divided into three independent spaces
A situation “Extraordinary, unique, unprecedented”, device “Responsible”, repeats Bernard Giudicelli, who had taken the players, the bodies of the men’s and women’s circuits, and the other Grand Slams by surprise by announcing the postponement of the tournament to September on March 17.
To do this, the stadium – which covers 12 hectares – has been divided into three spaces independent of each other. The enclosure will be able to accommodate 5,000 spectators every day on the Philippe-Chatrier central court and the six adjoining courts, same size for the Suzanne-Lenglen court (and its five annexes), and 1,500 on the Simonne-Mathieu court, in the garden of Serres d’Auteuil.
Mentioned at the end of August by the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, the idea makes it possible to bypass without going beyond the prohibition to derogate from the maximum level of 5,000 people in the departments in the red zone.
The three spaces will be “Hermetic from the point of view of flow management”, assures Jean-François Vilotte, general manager of the FFT and conductor of the tournament. If the spectators’ temperature measurement has been ruled out, wearing a mask will be compulsory both for travel and for the stands.
The players and their companions (two at most) will be tested “Upon their arrival and will receive their accreditation as soon as the first negative test is returned. A second test will be carried out within 72 hours, then another on D + 5, and another on D + 5 as long as they are in competition ”, said Guy Forget, the tournament director, also confirming the presence of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and defending champion Ashleigh Barty before the Australian finally formalized her forfeit.
All players accommodated in two hotels
Two hotels near the site have been reserved “Almost exclusively, everyone will be accommodated there, without exception ”. At the US Open, eight players including Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams had benefited from a waiver and preferred to rent a house at their own expense, which they also had to pay for 24-hour surveillance.
But unlike New York, there is no question of a supposedly tight “health bubble”, as the American Federation had proclaimed, by enacting a strict protocol in connection with the country’s health authorities. The said bubble quickly burst, and a series of imbroglios parasitized the course of the event, the French finding themselves in the foreground.
Tested positive the day before the start of the tournament, Benoît Paire was asked to stay in his room for ten days and his contact cases – Kristina Mladenovic, Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, Grégoire Barrère and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, as well as the Belgians Ysaline Bonaventure and Kirsten Flipkens – were given a day parole regime when they remained racing in the tournament, if not in isolation.
“We do not think in terms of an airtight sanitary bubble, it’s a fantasy”, Jean-François Vilotte, general manager of the FFT
“We don’t think in terms of an airtight sanitary bubble, it’s a fantasy, insists Jean-François Vilotte. There is no illusion of a magical place where we are protected from everything and there will be no “bubble”, except at the end of the tournament to celebrate… if all went well. ”
Any player who tests positive for Covid-19 will have their accreditation automatically deactivated. Potential contact cases will follow and if they are defined as such, they too will have to leave the tournament on the spot and respect strict isolation.
This protocol, set up under the aegis of the interministerial crisis unit and the Ile-de-France regional health agency, “This is what seems reasonable to date”, estimates Jean-François Vilotte. What will happen if the health situation deteriorates further between now and the tournament? “If the Seine starts to carry bodies every morning, I think that we will obviously have to review the protocol”, he quips.
As for the tournament partners and their guests, there is no question of turning them away despite the circumstances. “We will be delighted to welcome them, even if we will have a reduced hospitality system”, says Stéphane Morel, deputy general manager of the marketing and economic development department at the FFT. Let the boxes ring hollow, perhaps the only plan where this year, no one will see the difference.
