Tennis – Roland-Garros reportedly considering starting night sessions earlier in future

PARIS (Reuters) – French Open organizers will consider starting night sessions earlier at the next edition of the clay-court Grand Slam to avoid matches finishing too late, the tournament director said Guy Forget.

The night session, staged for the first time at Roland Garros, is played in front of empty stands at the Philippe Chatrier court due to the local 9 p.m. curfew due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roger Federer’s match on Saturday against Germany’s Dominik Koepfer ended around 1 a.m. after the Swiss won 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 7-6(4) 7-5.

The last of the late-night screenings, for which Amazon has exclusive television broadcast rights in France, will start an hour earlier on Wednesday, at 8 p.m., to let viewers in, as curfew restrictions come into effect two hours later from that day.

“Maybe we will adapt to 8:30 in the future. It’s a good point and we will have to discuss it,” Forget told the Tennis Majors website.

The US and Australian Opens also offer night sessions but, unlike the French Open, they feature more than one match.

“Even though in New York and Australia, we saw matches taking place at one, two, three in the morning. I don’t think the French are really ready for that,” Forget said.

“I think if we go to 11 p.m. or 12 p.m., tops, that would be the right time, so we probably have to count backwards, and say, well, 8:30 or 8 p.m. would be- Is there a better time to start?

“It’s something we’ll look at, I think, at the end of this tournament.”

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Berhampore, India; Edited by xx)