Organisers of the French Open have confirmed a player has been removed from the tournament after their coach tested positive for COVID-19.
The player in question was set to play in the main draw of the women’s doubles this week. No details have been given as to who that person may be and there is currently no information about a doubles team withdrawing from the tournament. It is also unclear if the pairing in question will be replaced by somebody else.
“The Roland-Garros tournament organisers inform that a women’s doubles’ player was declared a “contact case”, following the COVID-19 positive test result issued for her coach,” a statement from the French Tennis Federation reads.
“In line with the tournament health and safety protocol, this player’s doubles team has been withdrawn from the draw, which will commence Wednesday 30 September.”
It is not the first time a player has been removed from this year’s draw after either them or a member of their team testing positive. Last week in qualifying Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa and Spain’s Bernabé Zapata was excluded before later returning back to their home countries to test negative. Rising concerns about false positive results occurring. Furthermore, the coach of Damir Dzumhur and Fernando Verdasco was also removed after testing positive despite both of them having the virus earlier in the year. They also returned negative results when returning home.
In light of the controversies the French Tennis Federation has since changed their policy. Now if somebody who have proof of previously having the virus test positive, medical staff will now consider their medical history before coming to a decision. Last week a positive test meant a disqualification no matter what.
“The modifications of the ARS (Health Regional Agency) is to now accept non-infectiousness on the post-illness, if it is documented by a medical file and validated by medical experts, which is good for the players,” an unnamed FFT official told newspaper L’Equipe. “Unfortunately, we only received this decision on Friday evening.”
The French Open has conducted 1,900 COVID-19 tests since Thursday 17 September.
