Tennis News Today: Unhappiness Over ‘Unilateral’ French Open Call

Thursday, 19 March 2020, 5:58 am Staff Writer

'Roland Garros' is a tournament that has changed tennis forever. As history goes, it started as an ambitious dream by four men in 1928 who had the guts to stand up and create something extraordinary in their time – The French Open.

The French Open authorities have come under fire for their decision to postpone the tournament to September without any discussions with any of the other tennis heads.

Earlier this week, French Open was rescheduled for September 20 after the organisers decided they couldn’t get ready in time for the originally-scheduled May 18 event.

However, with multiple ATP and WTA events already planned for those two weeks, not to mention the Laver Cup, tennis heads of the men’s and women’s tours have come out with a subtle dig at Roland-Garros for their rescheduling decision.

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In a joint ATP-WTA press release late yesterday which announced a suspension of all tournaments till June 7, 2020, it also spoke of the need to work together instead of taking unilateral decisions.

In an obvious dig at the French Open rescheduling, the statement said:

“Now is not a time to act unilaterally, but in unison. All decisions related to the impact of the coronavirus require appropriate consultation and review with the stakeholders in the game, a view that is shared by ATP, WTA, ITF, AELTC, Tennis Australia, and USTA.”

Missing from the above list of tennis authorities are the French Open organisers.

Earlier, the Laver Cup had expressed strong surprise over the French Open decision to reschedule, since its new schedule clashed with their own. The Laver Cup organisers had tweeted they weren’t looking to make any changes to their own schedule with the tickets for the Boston tournament already sold out.

In an interview with the New York Times, ATP council member Vasek Pospisil slammed the French Open decision calling it a selfish move and reeking of a power play.

He said:

“That’s insane. These are really rough times, unprecedented times, and this just goes against the whole idea of the tour working together.”

“We have a calendar. We have discussions and negotiations between the Grand Slams and the ATP. We are always trying to make it work for everybody, and they just haven’t consulted the ATP, the players or the other tournaments. It’s just a very selfish move. They are basically doing a power play right now, and it’s quite arrogant.”

It now remains to be seen if French Open continues to play hardball and if so, will it cause a major division in the world of tennis.