French Open Announces Shock Move To September… DURING LAVER CUP!

by Sean Randall | March 17th, 2020, 1:58 pm
  • 8 Comments

The musical chairs game has begun in tennis. As I said yesterday, when the dust settles from this cornavirus, the tennis landscape is going to look a lot different, as far as tournaments go.

Today, the French Open decided to move their dates to September 20-October 4. According to the latest calendars and assuming we get past the virus, the French Open will be played DURING Roger Federer’s Laver Cup, St. Pete, Metz, Chengdu and Sofia on the ATP, and Tokyo, Seoul, Guangzhou and Wuhan on the WTA.

The whole world is affected by the public health crisis connected with COVID-19. In order to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved in organising the tournament, the French Tennis Federation has made the decision to hold the 2020 edition of Roland-Garros from 20th September to 4th October 2020.

Though nobody is able to predict what the situation will be on 18th May, the current confinement measures have made it impossible for us to continue with our preparations and, as a result, we are unable to hold the tournament on the dates originally planned.

In order to act responsibly and protect the health of its employees, service providers and suppliers during the organisation period, the FFT has chosen the only option that will allow them to maintain the 2020 edition of the tournament while joining the fight against COVID-19.

At this important period in its history, and since the progress of the stadium modernisation means the tournament can be held at this time, the FFT was keen to maintain the 2020 tournament. Therefore, this year’s Roland-Garros will be held from 20th September to 4th October.

This decision was made in the interest of both the community of professional tennis players, whose 2020 season has already been compromised, and of the many fans of tennis and Roland-Garros.

“We have made a difficult yet brave decision in this UNPRECEDENTED situation, which has evolved greatly since last weekend. We are acting responsibly, and must work together in the fight to ensure everybody’s health and safety,” explained Bernard Giudicelli, President of the FFT.

Any tickets already purchased will either be refunded or exchanged to take into account the new dates of Roland-Garros 2020. We will give details about how to do this in a subsequent press release.


So the French is effectively giving a big middle finger to the those events. And the players were even left in the dark.

The US Open will finish just a WEEK before the French Open begins. So Nadal will have back-to-back Slam title defenses. But that’s the smallest issue.

The bigger issue is what happens to those other events, and will other events impacted by the virus — like Indian Wells — take it upon themselves to just pack up and move to another date without approval.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon is planning to go on as scheduled…For now.

I would expect Rafael Nadal to give his input on this move as well as the tours and the Laver Cup who just got blindsided by this bold move out of Paris.


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8 Comments for French Open Announces Shock Move To September… DURING LAVER CUP!

PK Says:

This assumes everything will be back to ‘normal’ in Europe by September. On verra, as they say in Paris…


Alison Hodge Says:

Wonder what impact this will have on Wimbledon , and the Olympics , world cup etc ….


Alison Hodge Says:

Not to mention the USO ….


Juan L. Duquela Fuentes Says:

Yeah, “in the interest of fans of tennis” indeed. Ridiculous! They ruined my Laver Cup plans. Planning on canceling everything.

The yearly tennis schedule is a delicate balance between many different interests. If your event must be canceled due to a force majeure, virus, or whatever, that’s a risk you must take. Tough luck. Don’t ruin everyone else’s plans by unilaterally imposing your will and rescheduling your event, therefore forcing players to choose between various important events and ultimately ruining the quality of tennis across the board.


Dave Says:

The one thing it does do is give other players a better chance at the French Open. Nadal will be vulnerable with no warmup tournaments and possibly playing 7 matches at the US Open before the French Open. October 4th in the final conditions will be possibly colder than if it was played on June 8th as scheduled. So things will be more interesting this year.


SG1 Says:

WOW! Pretty much back-to-back with the USO. This seems a little crazy. Then again it’s France so who can possibly be surprised by anything these folks do. Where are the clay court warm up events going to be? Have to think this favors everyone but Nadal.


Alison Hodge Says:

of all the people to play on clay surely he has less to prove than anyone else, surely its down to everyone to beat him, rather than him beating everyone else


Alison Hodge Says:

i very much doubt that all the last three GS will go ahead anyway , as they will all be so close together, unless they finish the season later, then there will be hardly any rest between the end of the season and next years AO, Olympics is unlikely now too unless they do it next year, Euro football is off aswell ….

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