Roland Garros tries by all means to avoid the cancellation of which has been spoken in the last days and to which the Gala Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, even referred to the worsening of the coronavirus pandemic in France. AND one of the alternatives he uses is to postpone his start for a week, according to reports L'Equipe in the absence of official confirmation.
The French Tennis Federation (FFT) is studying the possibility of the Grand Slam starting on May 30 and not on May 23, as planned. In this way, the tournament would end on June 13 and some time would be bought while the situation in the country improves. Why a week? Because by then the health protocols would be a little less restrictive according to the Government's plans and that would give the FFT more flexibility for the organization and the presence of a reduced number of spectators, about 1,000 per day.
In addition, from mid-May it is planned that the terraces of bars and restaurants in Paris will be allowed to open, and from June 1 it will be possible to serve them inside them. In this way, at Roland Garros the VIP area and the rest of the hotel industry of the stadium would work. Right now, Paris and 15 other departments are in a situation of confinement for four weeks, only the establishments of first necessity are open and only departures are allowed on schedule.
The grass campaign would be reduced
This short postponement, which would have nothing to do with last year, when the competition went from being held in May to being held at the end of September, would affect the first grass campaign events that are scheduled for June 7 in Stuttgart (ATP), Hertogenbosch (ATP and WTA) and Nottingham (WTA). If they are canceled, the FFT would have to compensate their organizers. On the other hand, there would be an empty week in the gravel season before Roland Garros and then only two weeks would remain until the start of Wimbledon (June 28 to July 11), something that has not happened since 2015. This gibberish of the tennis calendar was already experienced in 2020 and this same year with the delay of the Australian Open, also due to the happy COVID-19 that upsets everything.