Players not vaccinated against Covid, including defending champion Novak Djokovic, and Russian and Belarusian players, including Daniil Medvedev, are welcome at Roland-Garros (May 22-June 5)… “for now “, said the organizing French Tennis Federation (FFT) on Wednesday. “We impose strict neutrality on Russian and Belarusian players (…) We remain on the principle of all the sports ministries of the European Union and all the key countries around us”, declared the director general. of the FFT Amélie Oudéa-Castéra at a press conference.
An individual athlete banned only if selected by their country
“We only ban an individual athlete if he has been selected by his country. That’s the framework, we stick to it,” she added. “For the moment”, however, insisted the president of the FFT Gilles Moretton. Wimbledon could ask Russian players who want to participate in the Major on grass to officially criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin for the military intervention in Ukraine. “At this stage, we do not intend to go into the detail of individual personal situations, which we also know can be extraordinarily dependent on the family situations experienced by each other,” assured Amélie. Oudea-Castera.
A super tie-break of 10 points in the fifth set
The four Grand Slam tournaments have decided to harmonize their ways of concluding matches in five sets, all introducing in 2022 the super tie break (10 winning points with a two-point difference) at 6-6 in the decisive set, have they announced on Wednesday.
On the side of health restrictions linked to Covid, “the indicators are green to have a full power Roland-Garros”, welcomed Moretton. Suddenly, Djokovic is expected in Paris where the vaccine pass has been lifted. “We have learned to be extremely careful, tempered Oudéa-Castéra. We see that from month to month things can change. In an archi-catastrophic scenario, there is always a way to reconstitute the health bubbles. Anticipation at best what we can, vigilance, pragmatism and the goal is obviously not to send home players who arrive to play”.
“Our goal is to have the best possible set,” said tournament director Amélie Mauresmo, while recalling being ready “to respect what is going to be put in place” in the country from a health point of view. “All of this is very scalable, we take things without too much excitement or disappointment. We try to stay in something neutral. We focus on preparing for the event. The sports field we will have it a bit later,” April 11, she said.