French Open: The roof over the Philippe-Chatrier Court is ready!
As the last Grand Slam tournament, the French Open now also has at least one court that can fall back on a roof in an emergency.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Feb 06, 2020, 01:59 pm
Somebody should say again that construction work is fundamentally delayed - no matter what the building is. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) caused a precedent yesterday that proves the opposite: two months before the scheduled date, the last section of the sliding roof was installed over the Philippe-Chatrier court. This means that at least one place at the Stade Roland Garros is now prepared for bad weather, in Wimbledon and at the US Open there are two, and in the Australian Open there are even three.
Last year, the roof would have been badly needed, not just because of the rain that had washed away a whole day of the tournament. The men's second semi-final between Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic also suffered from the stormy conditions, such that the match dragged on for two days.
The new roof will now go through several test phases until the end of April, before the main field at the French Open 2020 will start playing on May 24. If matches on the Court Phlippe-Chatrier need the roof, it can be closed within 15 minutes.