Fix: French Open take place in front of spectators
Despite the corona pandemic, the French Open will take place in front of spectators this year. The French tennis association announced on Monday.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Sep 07, 2020, 06:07 pm
While the US Open is currently playing in front of empty stands, the players at the French Open, which begins on September 27th, can look forward to at least partially filled stands. Because in Paris will be played in front of an audience despite rising corona numbers.
Unlike originally planned, however, up to 20,000 fans per day will not be allowed to flock to the facility. The reason for this is a decision by the French authorities, which says that events with more than 5,000 people are prohibited .
Plant divided into three zones
Nevertheless, up to 11,500 viewers will be on site in Roland Garros every day. This was made possible by a clever move by the French association: The facility will be broken up into three zones, between which fans will not change and which can be reached differently by public transport.
One of the three largest squares forms the main part of a zone. On the Court Philippe Chatrier and the Court Suzanne Lenglen up to 5,000 spectators are allowed per day, on the somewhat smaller Simonne Mathieu square the capacity limit is 1,500 people. The tickets purchased so far, which should only be valid for the outdoor seats, lose their validity. The same applies to the qualification, which will take place without a spectator.
Nadal, Djokovic and Barty at the start
In addition, the French tennis association announced that the fans must also wear masks in the spectator stands and that these may only be removed while eating or drinking.
In purely sporting terms, there should be a lot to offer: tournament director Guy Forget announced the commitments of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty. And it would come as no surprise if at least one of these three professionals took away most of the 38 million euros - that's only around four million less than last year - in prize money.
However, the path to the title is likely to be different than in previous years, especially off the field: The players are only allowed to stay in one of two selected hotels, must and are allowed to complete a corona test on arrival, after 72 hours and consequently every fifth day Do not train in Roland Garros on days when there are no games. At the moment everything is a little different.