Perhaps the most remarkable thing that Roland Garros tournament director Gilbert Ysern revealed in a breakfast meeting with American and British journalists on Tuesday was that France is very concerned that they don’t have enough clay court specialists, and that the FFT is planning on building many more clay courts at the nation’s regional training centers.
Outside of Roland Garros, where many of the top players train, most of France’s other centers are full of hard courts, which is where juniors ply their trade. Given that Roland Garros is the crown jewel of the clay court season and that it’s France’s most important tournament, Ysern feels it’s critical that French players better adapt to clay and go deeper in the second week of the tournament. It’s quite ironic given that the American brass says much the same thing about their players in regards to a lack of training on dirt.
Some other highlights from Ysern’s honest and insightful comments:
The tournament hopes to construct a new stadium by 2014 (although 2013) is a possibility, with a roof and, drum roll, please, very likely night sessions.
The stadium will be a good 5-minute walk form Philippe Chatrier in a nearby park, will currently, there is a nursery (flowers, not toddlers).
Despite the recession, tickets sales have gone extremely well where nearly every session is sold out. Only hospitality sales suffered a bit, down 3%.
Roland Garros feels that it’s in a healthy competition with the other Slams to keep improving the facilities, noting that Wimbledon’s decision to put a roof on was a motivating factor.Some 25% of the tickets sold go to foreigners.Venus Williams says she (and Serena) wants to play in the Fed Cup final and if she ends up committing, will keep her word. But… “We both really want to play, but once we give our word we want to keep it. It’s just important for us to make sure it’s something we can do. Being at the end of the season is tough, and we both obviously expect to be playing in the championships, too. By that time, it’s even tougher.”
We had a debate on Radio Roland Garros as to whether Juan Carlos Ferrero besting Ivan Ljubicic would be an upset. I said no, my partner Eli Weinstein said yes and JCF went on to win in five. I though Ljubicic would win the match, but don’t think that the 2003 RG Open taking out a very good but not great player on clay could be called an upset, even though Ferrero just won his tournament on clay in six years in April. At least to a small degree, Ferrero can still conjure up some magic.
Wednesday Popcorn matches of the day on the backcourts: Nicolas Almagro v. Ernests Gulbis and Agnes Szavay v. Elena Vesnina. Show court matches between Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova, Venus Williams and Lucie Safarova, Gilles Simon and Robert Kendrick and Andy Murray against Potito Starace aren’t too shabby either.
Question and Answer of the Day Goes to Serena:
Q. Must be kind of nice to go back to your own place [her apartment in Paris]?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I want to go home and see my kids and relax.
Q. Dogs?
SERENA WILLIAMS: Could be [said with a coy smile].
from TennisReporters.net
