Finding the right balance between respecting traditions and moving forward has always represented a difficult task. While breaking with the norm and making changes has always been initially frowned upon in all aspects of life, eventually society gets its head around new panoramas.
In modern day tennis we’ve seen how spotless white kits have made way for outlandish designs (except, of course, for Wimbledon), witnessed the introduction of hawk-eye technology and, eventually, observed as retractable roofs have been introduced at all Grand Slams bar Roland Garros.
The reality is that the time has come for the French Open to keep up with the rest. If the All England Championships – the mecca of traditions- has taken the plunge, then why can’t the French follow suit?
Of course financing such a construction is no mean feat but the French Federation is as powerful as they come and making an investment which benefits the players, the fans and television channels would do their position no harm.
What isn’t acceptable in modern day tennis is that players face the potential of playing back-to-back best of five set matches with barely any time to recover, as happened to Rafa Nadal at Wimbledon in 2007 after taking up to five days to dispatch Robin Soderling because of the adverse weather conditions.
The All England Championships addressed the situation – well aware that rain is a likely occurrence – making the tournament an avant-garde event. Not only this, it saves the tournament directors the huge ordeal of putting together a backlogged order of play.
Another question that must be asked is, what would happen if rain fell consistently for an entire week and no play was possible? Would Roland Garros last three weeks? How would the ATP react calendar-wise? Tournaments can’t be moved for an endless number of reasons but, likewise, they wouldn’t accept not having the best players on tour (hypothetically those that would be in the second week of Roland Garros).
It seems that given that this situation has never taken place, neither the ATP nor the French Open feel the need to have a Plan B and just sweep the issue under the rug. Sometimes things need to reach breaking point for changes to be put into place but wouldn’t it be wiser to be one step ahead and solve a potential issue before it becomes a reality?
