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Reports: French Open to be del...

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Reports: French Open to be delayed due to country's lockdown


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This year's French Open tennis championships look set to be delayed by a week due to coronavirus restrictions in France. 

Roland-Garros is scheduled to play host to the year's only clay court Grand Slam from Sunday May 23 to June 6.

However, with France under lockdown until early May, it's forced a rethink by tournament organisers according to L'Équipe.

The French Tennis Federation (FFT) have instead decided to stage this year's French Open from May 30 to June 13.

Such a move would mean there would once again be only a fortnight between the end of the French Open, and the start of Wimbledon.

The Wimbledon Championships were moved back a week in 2015, to allow players a three-week adjustment to life on grass.

Frenh Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu said on Sunday, "We are in discussion with them (the French Tennis Federation) to see if we should change the date to coincide with a possible resumption of all sports and major events."

She added, "Today, although high-level sport has been preserved, we try to limit the risks of clusters, of spreading the virus within professional sports."

The FFT will hope that this one-week postponement is not the start of another series of hasty rearrangements brought about by the pandemic last year.

Having postponed the 2020 edition on St. Patrick's Day of last year, organisers penciled in an early September date, before being forced to finally push it back until October.

Speaking last week, FFT president Gilles Moretton accepted there may be a delay to this year's French Open, but asked about a cancellation, he responded, "I dare not imagine that."

This year's championships are already courting controversy. The proposed 'night sessions' at Roland-Garros look set to be a strictly all-male preserve.

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Coronavirus Covid-19 French Open Roland Garros Roxana Maracineanu Tennis

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