“To be honest, it makes me a little nervous,” said Victoria Azarenka, a singles finalist at the United States Open. “I don’t necessarily know how I feel about it.”

French tennis officials have been formulating and reformulating plans for months. In March, they rankled nerves throughout the sport by announcing plans to postpone the tournament from its traditional time slot in late May and early June without consulting the other tennis governing bodies or the professional tours.

It has not helped that tennis officials keep shifting regulations and strategies for dealing with the pandemic

, leaving players to figure out a new set of rules each week depending on where they play, despite ongoing communication between tournament organizers in New York and Paris about what works and what does not. Already, organizers have eliminated at least seven players and a coach, including Fernando Verdasco of Spain, for either testing positive or being exposed to a coach who did. That coach tested positive for the coronavirus even though he had recovered from Covid-19 months ago. Traces of the virus remained in his system.

In a letter to players on Thursday, Andrea Gaudenzi, the chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals, which represents the men’s players and numerous tournaments, acknowledged the complications.

“Unfortunately this is our reality today under Covid-19, and while it is far from perfect, we must take a big-picture view that this is what it takes to bring our sport back,” Gaudenzi wrote.

The prospect of spectators attending the tournament has been its own dance. The French Tennis Federation wanted to allow 11,500 fans per day. But it had to reduce that at least twice, and now just 1,000 fans are expected each day at Roland Garros, the jewel box facility in western Paris that hosts the Grand Slam event. Organizers hope they can give an energy boost that was clearly lacking at the U.S. Open.

Source: New York Times

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