Paris (AFP)

"It's a real chance."

Despite grim weather, the few hundred spectators allowed Sunday at Roland Garros, for the first day, are aware of being the very privileged witnesses of an extraordinary edition.

Short N.10, at midday.

Under an insistent drizzle, the Italian Stefano Travaglia and the Spaniard Pablo Andujar camp under their umbrella while waiting for the end of the downpour.

In this short annex not protected from the rain, the Italian asks his trainer: "where can I go?"

"Playing on clay at that time of year, like that, outdoors ..." Simon, the jacket pulled up to his ears, pities the players and regrets the spring at Porte d'Auteuil.

"It's dying, we're used to the sun," he laments about a tournament postponed to early fall due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Like the lottery -

The same coronavirus which forced the organizers to accept at the last moment a maximum level of 1,000 spectators per day, drawn on Friday among the 5,000 survivors who had acquired the precious sesame for the Central.

A Philippe-Chatrier court where a hundred spectators were able to sit down freely to watch the first match between the Italian Jannik Sinner and the Belgian David Goffin.

"I thought we would not have a place and I canceled my train ticket", says Paul, a young Perpignan who had to buy one at the last minute to join his friends Clara, Yana and Charles in Paris.

"We never win the lottery but it was really incredible, we had a hard time believing it", Julie L'Hérondelle is almost moved, happy elected from Yvetot (Seine-Maritime) with her husband Christophe and their sons Eliot (15 years old) and Titouan (11).

Hood screwed on the head and mask on the nose, these licensees of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and regulars of the Porte d'Auteuil await the end of the training of Dominic Thiem, court N.15, at the bottom of the site.

"Everything is incredible, to see the empty aisles, that we can move around as we want, to see the players ...", recalls Julie.

"Usually, we line up to enter a field, we are against each other in the aisles, we wait a quarter of an hour in the bathroom ... it's unbelievable."

Because the real luxury, in a tournament which saw 35,000 people crowded on the same inaugural Sunday in 2019, is space.

"We have access to all the fields, to all the matches for the whole day, we can enjoy the Chatrier, we know that we are a little privileged", agrees Julien Grisard, president of a Lyon club who came with friends.

"It's almost disconcerting to be so close to beautiful players like that, we have the impression of being on a Challenger (5th category tournament, Editor's note)", realizes the manager of Tennis Lyon 1. "It is a real chance. "

- Selfies accepted -

It's not Eliot who will say otherwise, he who got a selfie with Thiem without a fight, after successfully hooking up half a dozen other players.

"Borna Coric refused but everyone else said yes, either far enough, a short yard away, or normally."

And with a mask on the face, health protocol requires.

With 35 times fewer spectators than usual, Philippe Braumaud believes that there is "no risk" of contracting the Porte d'Auteuil virus.

For this resident of Rueil-Malmaison, 10 km away, attending the tournament is anything but trivial this year: "We have to show that life goes on, go see sport, support the federation and the tennis players. It was very important for us to come. "

The scarf tied around the neck in addition to the hood, this regular since the 1980s obviously lives a Roland-Garros "very, very different" but remains convinced "to have a beautiful tournament. It's already better than the US Open where they played behind closed doors.

© 2020 AFP