Guy Forget: We would like there to be tournaments on clay before Roland Garros

Guy Forget, the Tournament Director of Roland Garros, appeared on the Tennis Legends show with former Grand Slam champions Mats Wilander and Justine Henin in which he spoke about holding the clay court Grand slam in Paris in September and about the renovation of the Philippe Chatrier  court.

Guy Forget says they would like some clay court events prior to Roland Garros

Forget, a former World No. 4 in singles himself, spoke on the show about the changes at Roland Garros over the past 12 months and also the current status of discussions about holding the event in September. "We made a lot of effort and invested almost 400 million euros to make this place better and modernize it. We were lagging behind the others and the gap was reduced, especially with the renovation of court Philippe Chatrier. This is why we were so excited that people are discovering the new Roland-Garros."

Forget also spoke about his experience of the new roof at Roland Garros and the current discussions about holding the event in September. "It's a bit like Wimbledon. The first time we discovered the Center Court with the roof closed, I was and it was weird. I think 90% of the time the roof will be open, but it will be there when we need it. For the moment, the trend (of holding the event) seems rather positive so we can hope that it continues to get better and better, that restaurants will reopen, that small capacity shows will resume, and so on. We are working behind closed doors, of course. We are in regular contact with the government. The clay requires time to adapt and we would like there to be tournaments on clay before Roland Garros. For the moment, nothing has been approved. There is still a long way to go."

Roland Garros was scheduled to begin this week in Paris before the tennis tour was shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The French Tennis Federation has postponed the event to September and says it is working with the governing bodies of tennis to finalize the exact date in the end of September. An updated announcement from the governing bodies is expected in mid-June.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XB39dn