Rome with a 96 grid - and yet a few fans?
After the Mutua Madrid Open was canceled, the Italian Open in Roman Foro Italico was the only tournament in the Masters 1000 category on Sand 2020. It could be a very special one.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Aug 05, 2020, 07:12 pm
Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian tennis association, is considered extremely busy and imaginative. In times of the corona pandemic, these attributes may be even more important than usual. In any case, Binaghi came on the scene a few hours after the Madrid tournament was canceled and announced that ATP had approached him, the ATP Masters event in the Foro Italico but please carry out with 96 players. So that means: a tableau for 128 participants, in which the 32 seeded players receive a walk-through in round one.
Since Rome is a combined event of women and men, one can confidently assume that the WTA would not be averse to such a mammoth field. But even if only the men with 96 athletes serve, the "normal" tournament week, which has been the standard in Rome for years, would not be enough. The consequence of this: an expansion of the competition to ten days.
Rome over ten days?
The only question is when? And at whose expense? As was heard on Tuesday, Rome could be pushed forward a week, that is, immediately after the US Open. Binaghi also seems to assume this. If the three additional days were put in front of it, the Generali Open in Kitzbühel would be affected. On the other hand, if you postpone the finals to the then free week before the French Open, that would not be the ideal solution for those organizers who quickly secured an event during this period. But apparently the one preferred by the Italian association president, as he noted in an interview with sportface.it.
On the other hand: what is normal these days? And so Angelo Binaghi is not further irritated by the recent announcement that the Italian Open would have to go on stage without a spectator. The eternal optimist hopes that a limited number of fans can come to the Foro Italico. After all, the Corona numbers would develop significantly better in Italy than in Spain or France.