Roland Garros keen to avoid fan lockout as key official questions need for extreme coronavirus restrictions

Grand Slam
Philippe Chatrier Roland Garros French Open

French Tennis Federation Director General Jean-Francois Vilotte says he still hopes to be able to welcome fans to Roland Garros for the French Open in September.

The tournament was postponed from it’s traditional May slot to September 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak, although there is still little sign of either the ATP or WTA resuming their Tours any time soon.

One possible solution to get tennis going again is to play behind closed doors, but Vilotte says he is against that – and sees little reason for it anyway.

“We are considering all the options, but we obviously don’t prefer to play behind closed doors [without fans],” Vilotte is quoted as saying by Sky Sports.

“We want there to be fans, who respect protective measures.

“I struggle to understand that we can re-open restaurants and shops, and that we can’t do if we’re responsible for a big event like ours.”

Vilotte believes that Roland Garros has enough capacity to safely host a significant number of people, and they are looking into ways of doing it.

“We’ll have to take into consideration the health situation at the time, with protective measures that must absolutely be respected, gauging the number of people that can be deployed over the 14 hectares [of Roland Garros],” Vilotte added.

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