French open 2020
source image: Conciergering
French Open, Unlike U.S. Open, to Allow Fans at its Tournament
The French Open, played on red-clay courts, is known generally for being the most crowded Grand Slam tournament. Organizers say they are planning for as many as 20,000 fans daily.
source image: Charles Platiau/Reuters
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, two more Grand Slam tennis tournaments are still scheduled to be played in 2020: the United States Open and the French Open.
But only the French Open intends to have spectators. Bernard
Giudicelli, the president of the French Tennis Federation, said
Thursday that the tournament could accommodate as many as 20,000 fans
on site per day if the public health situation in France did not
deteriorate.
The French Open plans to operate at “50 to 60 percent” of its usual capacity, Giudicelli said.
It’s Djokovic-Nadal Yet Again. But This French Open Duel Is Not Like the Others.
Rafael Nadal has been essentially unstoppable on clay. Novak Djokovic, though, could be that stopper.
Men’s tennis finally got a new Grand Slam champion in New York last
month as Dominic Thiem, an Austrian in, of all things,
20s won the United States Open
Less than a month later, the youth revolution is back on hold at Roland
Garros. The movement still cannot budge Rafael Nadal,
34 , and Novak Djokovic, 33,
who will face off in Sunday’s French Open men’s final.
That is a buzz killer for the younger set like Stefanos Tsitsipas, who
arrived in Paris last month with renewed hope that the men’s game could
add a second active Grand Slam champion younger than 30. But even after
all these years, Nadal versus Djokovic is still quite a conversation
starter,
and Nadal, who skipped the U.S. Open,
and Djokovic, who got himself ejected, will now play for the 56th
time.
No other men have played more often at the tour level in the Open era.
Djokovic has a 29-26 edge and has beaten Nadal in their last three Grand
Slam matches.
As the French Open Begins, Confusion and Fears About Coronavirus Dominate
This tournament was supposed to represent the next stage for the comeback of tennis, with fans in the stands and more freedom for the players. It is not turning out that way.
The French Tennis Federation wanted to allow 11,500 fans per day. But it had to reduce that at least twice, and now just 1,000 fans are expected each day at Roland Garros, the jewel box facility in western Paris that hosts the Grand Slam event.
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