On Sunday, May 24, 2015, in Paris, the French Open officially kicked off at Roland Garros. The defending singles champions are Nadal and Sharapova, and the men's and women's singles places are 128 each. The players are about to launch an attack on the second Grand Slam championship trophy this year.
Among the four Grand Slams, the special characteristics of the French Open can be seen everywhere. For example, it is the only tournament that starts on Sunday, and the entire event will last for fifteen days; the other three Grand Slams all start on Monday, and the event is held on a regular basis. It is fourteen days, and the difference in seats can be seen in the schedule.
The reason is very simple and intuitive:
Red clay.
The game pace, average time, etc. on hard courts are relatively fast, while the average time on clay courts is at another level.
Moreover, Paris in May is in the transition zone between spring and summer. It often rains, and sudden showers or heavy rain often disrupt the progress of the game.
If heavy rain occurs in the first week of the event, it will be even more of a disaster. It will easily lead to a large amount of event schedule accumulation, so that some players may need to play double games in one day, and players who play both singles and doubles may even need to play three games in one day, plus One can imagine the difficulty and torture of playing clay court matches and the devilish schedule.
Historically, the French Open, which was supposed to determine the men's singles champion and bring the event to a close on Sunday afternoon, has been delayed until Monday due to unexpected circumstances on more than one occasion -
The closest to now is 2012.
At that time, Djokovic was chasing his first French Open title and completing the feat of winning four consecutive Grand Slams. On the final stage, he faced his old rival Nadal, who had once won seven consecutive victories, and the latter was chasing his first. Eight French Open champions, trying to surpass Bjorn Borg to become the player with the most French Open championships in history, the two sides competed in a peak showdown in Huashan.
The game reached the fourth set, and Nadal led by a big score of "2:1", but Djokovic started to fight back from the third set and once won eight games in a row, which not only forced Nadal to lose the first place in that tournament set, and also led "2:0" in the fourth set.
Then Nadal struggled to hold serve to stop the decline of consecutive losses. At this time, rain interrupted the final for the third time. Then because it was getting late, the organizers of the tournament announced that the game would be postponed to Monday.
Playing again the next day, Nadal regained his form, came from behind to win the fourth set, and defeated Djokovic with a total score of "3:1" to become the champion.
After the game, people naturally made a bold hypothesis. If there had been no continuous rain interference, if the game had finished on Sunday, would the result have been the same?
This is not the first time a similar situation has happened, nor will it be the last time——
Of course, the French Open later completed fundraising and obtained permission from the city hall to add roofs to the two stadiums to ensure that the game would not be interrupted or even postponed due to natural conditions such as rain and nightfall. The event was postponed to Monday. The situation was largely avoided.
However, in the first week of the Grand Slam tournament, the small stadium without a roof in the outfield is the protagonist, and weather interference is still a factor that cannot be ignored.
In order to slightly alleviate this dilemma, the French Open has always insisted on moving the event schedule forward one day and kicking off the previous Sunday.
It is precisely because of this that the arrangement of the first week of the French Open is the most special——
The schedules of the other three Grand Slams tend to follow corresponding rules. For example, on Monday, the upper half of the men's singles and the lower half of the women's singles; on Tuesday, the upper half of the women's singles and the lower half of the men's singles, everything is there. There are traces to follow. After the signature is drawn, the audience can complete their judgment.
But the French Open is not, it is the only Grand Slam tournament where the first round is evenly spread out over three days.
In other words, the first round of the men's and women's singles competition, a total of 128 games, is all disrupted and distributed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The upper and lower half will not be strictly distinguished; naturally, by On Wednesday, the schedule was rearranged according to divisions, which was full of surprises.
Of course, such a unique schedule also ensures the balance of the French Open schedule——
Including the Big Four, Serena Williams, Sharapova and other top stars, they can be evenly distributed among the three match days.
At the same time, the host players will also get more opportunities to stand in the spotlight during their games.
In addition, for players who need to play on Wednesday, the game will be scheduled on Monday or Tuesday. This is also the only clue about the schedule after the draw is made.
Everything is for box office.
This year, as usual, the French Open announced the schedule and venue arrangements for the first three days on Saturday afternoon, which successfully aroused heated discussions among reporters and netizens.
Like Melbourne Park, Roland Garros has three large stadiums and another twenty small stadiums. However, compared to Melbourne, Paris has always been under tremendous economic pressure, whether it is to build a roof or expand the stadium. They all have been encountering many problems.
Currently, Roland Garros is building a new stadium. Due to the limited available space, it is not a large stadium, but a medium-sized stadium that can accommodate 5,000 people. However, after it is completed, this stadium will still become a new landscape of the French Open.
At this stage, there are three large courts, namely Philippe Chartier Court, Susan Lenglen Court and Court No. 1. Among them, Philippe Chartier, the largest center court, and Rod Laver at the Australian Open Like the Eredivisie Stadium, it can accommodate up to 15,000 spectators and is undoubtedly the crown jewel.
The opening match of this year’s French Open will be played by last year’s runner-up Halep——
At this time, some people may be confused, why Halep?
This is not to question Halep, after all, she is also the third seed this year, but besides her, there are obviously more suitable choices, but it is Halep?
But if it’s the French Open, everything seems natural:
Halep's first-round opponent, Evgeniya-Rodina, is from France.
There is no doubt that in any event, players from the host country will receive preferential treatment from the home court, and the four Grand Slams are no exception. Players from the host country can often enter large stadiums and get more opportunities to showcase; but the other three Grand Slams are not as good as the French Open. It was bold and direct, even naked——
Other Grand Slams will also consider rankings and past results. Otherwise, it seems unreasonable to arrange for a little-known host qualifying player or wild card player to play on the center court; but the French Open does not, roll up your sleeves If you act recklessly, everything will be in vain.
Therefore, at the French Open, you can often see some incredible schedules. When some French players enter three large stadiums, even the local audience is full of questions, "Who?"
The interesting thing is that the local audience doesn't care. They give unconditional support to the host players as long as they are players of the host country. They don't give any face to those high-ranking popular superstars. It has to be said that in Roland Garros, there are no names of the Big Four. How useful.
What's more, Rodina played against the third seed, so the schedule was arranged like this.
It is conceivable that controversy is foreseeable.
(End of chapter)
