Paris (AFP)

Ten days before its kick-off, exceptionally in the fall (September 27-October 11), Roland-Garros was once again overtaken by the reality of Covid-19: the Parisian Grand Slam will finally be able to accommodate only 5,000 spectators per day.

When, at the beginning of July, Roland-Garros had set the bar at up to 20,000 daily spectators before reopening its ticket office, ie "from 50 to 60% of its maximum usual tonnage", the announcement had seemed ambitious.

For the first time, ten days ago, the French Tennis Federation (FFT), which organizes the tournament, had to revise its ambitions to halve.

Both in the face of the deterioration of the health situation in France and the impossibility, announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex at the end of August, of "deviating" from the maximum level of 5,000 people "in the red departments (...) where there is a strong viral circulation ".

Under these conditions, it had presented an intermediate option which allowed it to receive up to 11,500 spectators per day.

An option then validated by the French authorities and qualified as "responsible and reasonable to date" by the general manager of the FFT Jean-François Vilotte.

Its logic: the division into three "hermetic, independent and autonomous" sectors of its 12 hectare and 1 km long stadium.

Three areas organized around its three main courts, Philippe-Chatrier (5,000 seats), Suzanne-Lenglen (5,000) and Simonne-Mathieu (1,500), in the garden of the Auteuil greenhouses.

- 20,000, 11,500, then 5,000 -

But, ten days from its opening and only four from the start of qualifying, here is Roland-Garros again forced to tighten the bolts, with 5,000 spectators a day at most, told AFP the Paris police headquarters.

This hardening comes as the Minister of Health Olivier Véran described the Covid-19 epidemic as "again very active in our country" Thursday afternoon during a press conference.

In total, in fifteen days of competition - the qualifying week takes place behind closed doors - only 75,000 spectators will be able to attend the tournament.

Far, very far from the nearly 520,000 welcomed in 2019 throughout the Parisian fortnight.

Economically, this is not at all a detail for the FFT and French tennis, very largely irrigated by Roland-Garros, to the tune of 80% in 2019 (255.4 M EUR out of a total budget of the FFT of 325 M EUR).

And while the ticket office generates nearly 20% of tournament revenue.

With a limit of 11,500 spectators, the director of Roland-Garros Guy Forget had estimated that "the proceeds of the tournament (would) be divided by two", which corresponded to some 140 million euros.

Lowering the slider to 5,000 should further increase the shortfall and will force the organizers to take new last-minute steps with ticket holders.

Questioned by AFP, the FFT refused immediately to any comment.

Usually scheduled at the end of May-beginning of June, Roland-Garros had been postponed to the fall to everyone's surprise, under the unilateral impetus of its organizers, from mid-March.

Stopped due to the new coronavirus pandemic for five months, from the beginning of March, world tennis ended up reviving in early August.

But no tournament has opened its doors to so many spectators since.

The three most important so far, US Open, Cincinnati (relocated to New York), and Rome this week, have even been held behind closed doors.

© 2020 AFP