Roland-Garros: Television or the performance of athletes, you have to choose

The risky decision of the Parisian tournament to be created in 2021, for television, night sessions are beginning to change itself to interfere with the smooth running of the tournament.

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, who played herself at the highest level, could not remain unmoved by the comments of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

The schedule for evening games can be questionable from the point of view of player comfort. These are also the questions I ask myself. The balance sheet, we will do at the endhe explained at a press meeting.

You need to find the right balance. Start the fight at 9 pm, on clay, at the best of five sets, it could end late.explained Rafael Nadal, winning his quarter-final against Djokovic.

I think they started late, honestlyDjokovic estimates on his part. But again, television decided. This is the world we live in. Broadcasters choose whether it’s a game at night, a game during the day. They give the money. They decided.

If all of the day’s matches are broadcast on France Television channels, the evening sessions will be shown on Amazon Prime’s pay channel.

This pay channel won a call for tenders for broadcasting rights at the French Open. It provides a batch consisting of 10 night sessions, currently broadcast in France by Amazon.

The online ordering giant therefore pays heavily to have posters to choose from, even though its audience is smaller than France Television, the country’s public and free broadcaster.

In addition to the distribution of television rights, the central court ticket office is also shared between day sessions and night battles.

The match between Nadal and Djokovic ended in 1: 15-30, the stadium was full. Only a few people are leftrecollection of Amélie Mauresmo

Those evening sessions, when you’re at the stadium, for me, the interest is obvious, she admitted. It is full every night.

But there are also commercial considerations in addition to sporting considerations.

Rafael Nadal wanted to take advantage of the extra few degrees of temperature in the afternoon. A tennis ball will bounce more in hot conditions, just like a golf ball will travel more in hot weather.

And since Nadal’s game is made of very bouncy spin balls, a few degrees lower at night, along with increased humidity on the pitch, will partially neutralize this advantage.

Amélie Mauresmo fully understands the advantage this may represent for some.

Some hate it, some feel it is a privilegehe clarified.

Maintaining evening sessions would go through the question of transportation, he acknowledged, a main point in the future. The time of the end of the match between Nadal and Djokovic prevented spectators at the stands from using the meter, which was closed, to return to their homes.

We must have a dialogue including the city of Paris to perhaps further push the metro or bus system.

The final session on the eve of the 2022 edition of the French Open will face Casper Ruud against Holger Rune on Wednesday, the final quarter-final of the men’s table of two weeks.

In the invaluable collaboration of Antoine Deshaies