When France first went into a nationwide lockdown and it became obvious the French Open wouldn't be able to take place at its normal time, the FFT made it clear that the event would be postponed, not cancelled. All the other European clay-court events that serve as French Open warmups were also called off, and they wanted to "preserve the clay court season." I get their sentiment, which is somewhat noble, but, again, their timing was off.
The biggest problem was that the FFT unilaterally chose the new dates of the tournament. They didn't consult with the ATP, the WTA or the ITF (which runs the Grand Slams). (Although, they did call Nadal to let him know.) The dates they chose? September 20-October 4. That's one week after the US Open ends!
So, because they made the decision entirely on their own and just went with it, the FFT is expecting men's players to play seven best-of-five matches on hard courts in New York, then fly to Europe and play seven more best-of-five matches on a completely different surface (that punishes your body) a week later. That's 14 best-of-five matches on different continents in five weeks! And, if the US Open is moved to Indian Wells in California, as has been rumored as a possibility, they'll end up having to travel five time zones instead of eight!
It's not like the players would have a choice about playing, either. Unless they're injured, players are required to play in Grand Slams, which automatically count in their rankings. So, you don't show up, you get zero points. Plain and simple.
That's not even taking into account the possibility of having to be quarantined. Even if you play without fans, which is almost a certainty, you're still talking about players from all over the world traveling between two of the hardest-hit countries. I don't think the U.S. has a mandatory quarantine to enter the country for non-Americans anymore, but I have no idea about France. If France has a mandatory 14-day quarantine, than anyone who made it to the second week of the US Open (aka, most, if not all, of the top players) would be out of luck since their quarantine wouldn't expire until the second week of Roland Garros.
Beyond that, though, the ATP already had the Laver Cup scheduled for the final weekend of September in Boston. The Laver Cup is a Davis Cup-style competition between Team USA and Team Europe that has gotten the buy-in of many top players, including all of the Big Three. Federer and Nadal had already committed to it. The Laver Cup has since been cancelled, but it hadn't been yet when the French made their move.
Then there's qualifying. Every Grand Slam tournament allots 16 places in the field to qualifiers. The qualifiers are held the week before the tournament. Which means French Open qualifying will start literally days after the US Open ends. That's an awfully quick turnaround, especially if one of those players makes it to the second or third round of the US Open.
Wimbledon used to start two weeks after the French Open ended. A few years ago, they moved it back a week, which the players had wanted for years. One of the reasons they wanted the change was so that they could have more time to make the transition from clay to grass, which require two completely different styles of play. Clay courts are slow and matches are long, grind-it-out affairs. Grass courts are generally fast with quick points that favor the big servers. That's why, historically, players are good at one and not the other (it's not a coincidence that Federer chose to skip the French but still play Wimbledon three years in a row).
Sometimes top players would simply take those two weeks off and go right to Wimbledon without having played a match since the French Open. Moving Wimbledon a week later, though, gave them the opportunity to play in the warm-up tournaments. While the rest is important, getting a grass court match in your legs (especially since there are so few grass-court tournaments) is just as necessary. And I think everyone would agree that change was beneficial.
What the French Open organizers were asking the players to do was nonsensical. Hard courts and clay courts are nothing like each other! And the players wouldn't have any opportunity to play a tune-up or get acclimated to the time change with only a week in between the two events. Not to mention the whole 14 best-of-fives on two different continents thing. And we're talking about two majors here! These aren't two random tournaments.
They obviously had their reasons for choosing those dates. Roland Garros doesn't have lights, so they need it to be early enough in the year for them to have enough daylight. And, it's not like Paris gets particularly chilly to begin with. But they obviously want to play it when the weather is a little more comfortable.
Ultimately, though. Those reasons were selfish. Had they been looking beyond their own self-serving interests, the FFT would've realized the September 20 start date simply doesn't work. For starters, the rescheduled Tour de France is supposed to end on that day. Beyond that, though, had they worked with the ATP, WTA and ITF, they could've all collectively figured out the date that worked best for all parties (all the more reason why the men's and women's players need a single, unified tour).
Fortunately, it looks like their friends in Italy have bailed them out. The Italian Open is perhaps the most significant of those spring European clay court tournaments. It's the only combined French Open tune-up and the one that most of the top players play in. The Italian Open, too, was obviously postponed this spring. But they also expressed a desire to still hold the tournament, and they've suggested that September 21 is the best option. If that's the case, the French Open will almost certainly move back a week itself.
Frankly, that's the date the French Open should've moved to all along. While still not ideal, September 27-October 11 is much more doable for the players. This way, they won't immediately have to hop on a plane to Paris and get ready to play another Grand Slam less than a week later. Giving them that extra week is key. Some may choose to play in Italy, while others might choose the break. Point is, they'll have a choice. And those who have to go through qualifying will still have time in between.
There's obviously no perfect answer. We don't even know if we'll be in a position to have tennis players from all over the world coming together in the same place by late August (when the US Open is supposed to start). But, regardless of the situation, one week between the US and French Opens is simply not enough time. Two weeks, though. They can make that work.
No comments:
Post a Comment