Playing with risk tennisnet.com

The organizers of the French Open have reduced the number of visitors admitted almost every day. For good reason. Starting Sunday, 1,000 fans should be able to attend the 2020 French Open every day.

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Numbers are everything, even in tennis. It is always calculated and calculated. It is about maximum values, records. About speeds, percentages.

But when everything is not how it used to be, tennis suddenly turns into completely different numbers. And when you look at these numbers, the Corona numbers on the rise, you have a very uncomfortable feeling about the Grand Slam competition, which starts this weekend in the Paris hotspot: the 2020 French Open, the main competition. that the pandemic threw into the fall.

What else would you talk about when you looked ahead to the grueling slides on the red sand? On the incomparable record of Rafael Nadal, who has only lost two of his 95 matches at the Roland Garros stadium since his debut in 2005, and who could now face the 13th title blow? In Serena Williams’ mission, who is still chasing the all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles?

Paris hit by the pandemic

All this and much more will no doubt play a role and be a topic of conversation for the next two weeks. But there is a big shadow over this tournament, and it is the others, Corona’s grim numbers, that cause concern and raise questions about how useful it all is in times of a global and national health crisis. Because these are also the 2020 French Open: a match at risk in France, which has been badly affected by the pandemic, and its capital, Paris.

When the organizers of the French Open announced in the spring, shortly after the event’s original date of late May / early June, that they wanted to allow 20,000 daily viewers in the fall in western Paris, some in the industry shook the ball. head in amazement. On the other hand, the number of newly infected people at that time seemed to allow for a somewhat more offensive concept; it was often in the triple digit range for the entire country. However, it was also clear that the 20,000 desired visitors had something to do with the precarious financial situation of the organizer, the French tennis association FFT. The massive investments in recent years, especially for the construction of a roof on the center court, had driven deep holes in the budget.

Meanwhile, the number 20,000 seems completely out of date, as if it has always been just a utopia. Because the situation in France has changed, and not for the better. Between Wednesday and Thursday of this week alone, more than 16,000 new infections were reported to authorities, a sad peak in the Corona era, far more than the 7,578 new infections that marked the peak of the “first wave” on May 31. March. And this number was also reported shortly before the first services in the main field of the French Open: in the capital, Paris, 20 percent of the planned operations will be canceled from the weekend to be prepared for the possible delivery. of more intensive care corona patients.

Rejection of lobbyists

A few weeks ago, many in the tennis world raised concerns about hosting the US Open, despite New York having the infection rate under control. Before the French Open, comparatively little can be heard from the player field, although the entire Grand Slam build, including the so-called “bubble,” seems much less secure. Interestingly, the professionals will secretly breathe a sigh of relief that the organizers had to gradually move away from their steep audience plans. The 20,000 fans initially increased to 11,500, which would be spread over three separate zones on the Roland Garros ground. Then the organizers around the tournament boss, Guy Forget, had to obey the instructions of government authorities two more times: more than 5,000 daily visitors, on the center court alone, were reduced to the now official 1,000 fans. So de facto it will also be a ghost tournament, with a challenging remaining decor of visitors that can hardly create a mood.

The first cases of crown had already occurred in the classification, the first exclusions from the tournament and the first skirmishes over the significance of the series events. What will come in the next two weeks, like everything in these times, is unpredictable. The risk of other players or their followers becoming infected and triggering quarantine measures with serious consequences is not at all absurd. According to former top player and renowned television expert Mary Carillo (USA), the danger is “much greater than at the US Open.” According to Carillo, the security protocol in Paris is much more lax than in New York, and the situation is already more threatening.

Prime Minister Jean Castex had rejected any exception rule for the tennis tournament on Thursday, it was also a rejection of all the lobbyists who wanted to obtain special Grand Slam rights with the central government. The French Open must know for itself, Castex was quoted, that it must know for itself if the tournament makes sense and should be held under restricted conditions.