Some things are still in Paris, in the Roland Garros stadium, out in the west of the capital. Rafael Nadal continues to win his games like a machine there. Many slides in the red sand take a little eternity. In case of doubt even longer than six hours, like in the second longest game in tournament history, on Monday between the Italian Lorenzo Giustino and the French Correntin Moutet. Giustino won the fifth and last set, which alone lasted a good three hours, with 18:16.

Most of the French Open Championships in 2020 are different, take some getting used to and are slightly bizarre. For example, at the start of the season, how could you have imagined a statement like Andrea Petkovic's, who after her first round off again dutifully pointed out that she had done everything “to just somehow avoid other people.” She was Even walked the stairs in the player's hotel as a precaution, said Petkovic, "I just didn't want to meet anyone in the elevator, not even other players."

Roland Garros 2020: the event is economically necessary

The fear of contact is not paranoid, but real, since Frenchman Benoit Paire tested positive for Covid-19 at the US Open - and later according to the regulations, friends were excluded from the tournament because they had played cards with Paire in the hotel foyer. Professional life has become manageable, fragmented and boring. From the room it goes to the tournament facility, and from the tournament facility back to the hotel when the working day is over. The Eiffel Tower can only be viewed from the hotel window, inaccessible in times of the global pandemic. “You have to take it as it comes. And how it is necessary, ”says Alexander Zverev. In the meantime he has got used to the new circumstances with extreme equanimity. “What else can you do?” Says the 23-year-old from Hamburg.

Nothing remains of the Parisian springtime lifestyle, when the tournament has been taking place in normal times for over 100 years. But the French Open in September and October now stand less for a defiant exclamation point in the middle of the great corona crisis or the courage of the Paris association officials. They take place simply because it is economically and financially necessary, otherwise one would have to fear for the survival of one of the four most important tournaments of the traveling circus.

First edition under floodlights

After the first palaver about cold, wet and heavy balls, the minds have now calmed down again. You should get up every morning and be grateful that tournaments like the French Open are taking place, says the two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, "other people also have to work under difficult conditions." rather than in daylight, but under the floodlights in more than ten places. Like the Australian Open and the US Open, the French Open has become a day-and-night event, from 11 a.m. until late in the evening, even past midnight.

It should stay that way when it comes to the bosses of the tournament, FFT President Bernard Giudicelli and French Open Director Guy Forget. If at some point there are no more audience restrictions, ideally as early as 2021, but realistically probably not until 2022, then there will also be designated evening events on several large show courts. For which, of course, own tickets are sold. A premise for the next few years, according to ex-top professional Forget, is “debt reduction”, after all the construction of the new Center Court roof alone devoured around 200 million euros.

New balls: "Don't even give the dog to nibble"

The organizational crew had to distance themselves from the really big ambitions. In the end, the French Open also became a ghost tournament, the 1,000 allowed spectators in the Paris Corona hotspot are atmospherically not worth mentioning. There are players who don't mind the empty ranks, who even feel less pressure without fans, says former world number one Mats Wilander, “and then there are players who are pushed down by the whole scene. Those who can not only get themselves carried away, but also need external impetus. ”Zverev and Thiem certainly did not belong to the latter group at the US Open

The slogan of the tournament has so far been coined by the grumpy Brit Dan Evans, who said after his dramatic first-round defeat by five sets against Japan's ace Kei Nishikori that he would not even "give his dog to nibble on the new balls" , her reference in the icy weather to the fact that she was used to “completely different temperatures” from Florida. Everything will be forgotten when the French Open champions are determined the weekend after next. In the middle of autumn, with the balls thrown to winners and losers.

rg2020