French Open fans will be able to watch the next edition of the tournament with a roof over the Philippe-Chatrier court come May 2020.
According to the official French Open twitter account, the roof over that stadium will be an 11-pane retractable one of which eight have already been fitted. Work on the remaining three will be complete by January 2020.
Having been around since 1928, the work on this main court at the French Open began in 2018 and it will be for the first time in 2020 that matches will be played under floodlights.
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The spectacular transformation of Philippe-Chatrier court is well underway!? Its 11-pane retractable roof is currently being fitted: 8 sections are already in place and the last 3 will be installed by the end of January 2020. #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/NMmo4448aq
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) December 18, 2019
This will allow the French Open schedule to have night sessions as well, which will ensure weather won’t be a huge factor in any of the matches and play wouldn’t have to be rescheduled on those courts.
This change comes on the back of a consistent criticism from fans and media that the tournament hasn’t seen too many changes to make it better for those attending the competition. Play has often been suspended because of weather and light issues in the past at the tournament.
With this, Roland-Garros joins all the other Grand Slams which all have roofs now. The Melbourne Park has three courts which have covered during the Australian Open while two of them are under cover at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows.
The 2020 edition of the French Open begins on May 24 next year, and tickets for the competition will be released very soon (get all information how to buy these Roland-Garros tickets here). Rafael Nadal will look to add to his burgeoning list of French Open titles while the women’s singles defending champion Ash Barty will hope she can maintain the kind of form that saw her catapult to the top of the rankings at Roland-Garros.
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