The world of tennis learned about it through Twitter. Almost everyone: players (with the exception of Rafael Nadal), ATP, tournaments, even members of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) who, however, act as guardianship authority. According to our information, Bernard Giudicelli, president of the French Federation, took alone the decision to postpone Roland-Garros, by consulting only his agenda, without even warning his right-hand man and director of the tournament, Guy Forget.
President of the FFT, Bernard Giudicelli alone made the decision to postpone Roland-Garros. Image: AFP.
The new dates spread shamelessly from September 20 to October 4, interspersed between a long hard season and another indoor – a technical contortion coupled with a large athletic gap. But Roland-Garros arrives especially in full Laver Cup and other Asian tour. Just a week after the US Open …
The inflexible Laver Cup
To the anger of the players was added the amazement of the ITF – “I had never heard of such a scenario”, confessed one of its leaders – and the threats from ATP who, to organize several tournaments at the same period, could take scathing retaliatory measures. One of them, currently under discussion, is to award no ATP points to the 2020 edition of Roland Garros.
In a barely veiled threat, the US Open is also thinking about postponing dates, without excluding setting them … on those of Roland-Garros. “We would only take this decision after consulting the other Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP, the WTA, the ITF and our other partners, including the Laver Cup,” the American Federation press release insisted, as if to stand out from French sovereignism.
The Laver Cup, precisely, refuses to go into detail on the slightest modification, as does the long-awaited and richly endowed Wuhan tournament, planned during the “new” Roland-Garros. Roger Federer, co-founder of the Laver Cup, has already announced that he will not go to Paris, while other players express their doubts to Guy Forget.
Christian Despont
Created: 18.03.2020, 11h01
–
