Postponements raise the roof issue
PARIS — For the first time in 16 years, rain washed out a full day of play Monday at the French Open, the only Grand Slam tennis venue without a retractable roof over its show court. The unfinished and postponed matches now clogging the schedule prompted the frustrated tournament director to plead — again — for a roof as soon as possible.
“Our roof is a necessity,” Guy Forget said, as players were sent back to their hotels and thousands of would-be spectators were told to apply for refunds for their unused tickets.
Chopped and changed plans to modernize Roland Garros now call for a retractable roof by 2020 over Court Philippe Chatrier, as part of a modernization of the cramped clay-court venue in the west of Paris. But opposition and legal action from local residents and environmental activists has slowed the ambitious project, which would expand Roland Garros into botanical gardens next door. Tournament organizers hope a ruling expected in September from the Council of State, France’s highest administrative authority, will allow work to proceed.
With damp spectators sheltering where they could from the downpours and no letup forecast, tournament organizers announced in the early afternoon that there would be no play at all for the first time since May 30, 2000.
“We knew today was going to be horrible and it went beyond what we had imagined. That’s why we sent back the players so early,” Forget said.
If the weather breaks Tuesday, matches will start three hours earlier than initially planned and be spread over more courts. Despite forecasts of more rain, Forget said he is “pretty positive” there will be play. The schedule for Tuesday has top-ranked Novak Djokovic and 14thseeded Roberto Bautista Agut in the first match on Chatrier, playing for a place in the quarterfinals.
With a new retractable roof scheduled to be available at this year’s U.S. Open, the French Open is the only Grand Slam without a structure for play to continue under rain.