French Open: New game schedule to ensure fairer conditions in 2020
The French Open 2020 comes up with a novelty: to ensure fairer conditions for all players, from this year all quarter-finals will take place on the Court Philippe-Chatrier . Thanks to the roof over the Center Court, weather-related shifts are now a thing of the past.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Feb 01, 2020, 01:40 pm
Quarter-finals at the French Open 2019: Alexander Zverev should face Novak Djokovic in an absolute blast, Dominic Thiem should face Karen Khachanov. This Wednesday, however, the weather thwarted this plan: the two quarter-finals of the men and women had to be canceled due to the constant rain - the organizers turned their schedule upside down.
Scenes like this are said to be a thing of the past for two reasons. On the one hand, there will be a roof over the Center Court, the Court Philippe-Chatrier this year, on the other hand there will also be a change in the schedule. All of the quarter-finals will therefore be held in the largest arena of the French Open, and are therefore immune to the weather due to the new roof.
No more shifts
The quarter-finals are still played on two days, with the difference that only one court is available in the round of eight. Above all, this change should have one effect: fairer conditions for the players. Since there should be no more shifts per futuro, all players in the same half have the same game and rest days.
The audience capacity also speaks in favor of this decision. The Court Philippe-Chatrier can accommodate 15,000 spectators, in the second largest stadium, the Court Suzanne-Lenglen, only 10,000. Two sessions will now take place on each of the two quarter-finals, in which a women's and a men's match will be played. The first session starts at 12:00 noon, the second not before 17:00.
The French Open 2020 will take place from May 24th to June 7th. Title defender is clay court king Rafael Nadal, who defeated Dominic Thiem in the final for the second time in 2019. Thanks to the innovations, it is unlikely that there will be a weather-related two-day clash this year - as in the previous year in the semifinals between the Austrian and Novak Djokovic.