For several days, the city of Paris – like Belgium – has had to deal with heavy downpours.
A problem for the organizers who are forced to shake up their program. This was particularly the case on Wednesday, with all of the doubles matches postponed and part of the singles matches. But they are not the only ones to suffer the consequences of the rain.
Players who do not have the chance to play their game on Philippe-Chatrier or Suzanne-Lenglen sometimes have to wait several hours to (perhaps) get on the court.
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According to Andrey Rublev (ATP 6), spectators also pay the price. “Sometimes they only come for a day and because of the rain they don’t get to see the match. Now it’s true that there are some courts that are covered like this (the Suzanne-Lenglen where he played on Wednesday). For all Grand Slams, the big courts in any case can be covered. This was not the case before.”
And the Russian continues: “I don’t know if at the US Open and Australia they have that, but at Roland Garros and Wimbledon the outdoor courts are covered as soon as it rains. Which means if the rain stops, you just take the tarps off and you’re ready to play again straight away.”
At a press conference, the winner of the last Masters 1000 in Madrid went further in his reflection: “This is not good at all for spectators in general. If we want to watch tennis outdoors, we know that there are times when it will rain. I don’t know if it would be possible to have a roof on each of the courts for each of the tournaments. In this case too, it could even protect the public who would not be soaked. I don’t know, that’s a question to ask the organizers. If they are willing to spend a lot of money to build a lot of roofs or equivalent things.”
For his part, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas mentioned about indoor courts: “I think it’s a fantastic thing for Roland-Garros to have also covered the Suzanne-Lenglen. They put a roof on this very beautiful court, the second largest at Roland-Garros, but I said to myself today that it would be even better if the Simone-Matthieu was covered and if there were three courts on which we can play on a rainy day like today. Maybe I’m asking a lot, but it’s something to consider for the future, if Roland-Garros becomes even more important than it already is.”
