Chapter 1329 Schedule

On Sunday, May 24, 2015, in Paris, the French Open officially kicked off at Roland Garros. The defending singles champions are Nadal and Sharapova. One hundred and twenty-eight players in men's and women's singles are about to launch an attack on the second Grand Slam championship trophy of the year.

Among the four Grand Slams, the uniqueness of the French Open can be seen everywhere. For example, it is the only tournament that starts on Sunday and the entire tournament will last for fifteen days; the other three Grand Slams all start on Monday and the tournament cycle is fourteen days. The difference in seats can be seen in the schedule.

The reason is very simple and intuitive:

Red soil.

The pace, average time, etc. of hard court matches are relatively fast, while the average time of clay court matches is on another level.

Moreover, Paris in May is in the transition zone between spring and summer, and it rains frequently. Sudden showers or heavy rain often disrupt the progress of the game.

If heavy rain occurs in the first week of the tournament, it will be even more of a disaster, easily leading to a large number of tournament schedules being piled up, so that some players may need to play two matches in one day, and players who play both singles and doubles may even need to play three matches in one day. Coupled with the difficulty and torture of clay court tournaments, one can imagine how devilish the schedule will be.

Historically, the French Open, which was supposed to decide the men's singles champion and end the tournament on Sunday afternoon, has been delayed to Monday more than once due to unexpected circumstances.

The most recent one was in 2012.

At that time, Djokovic was chasing his first French Open title and completing the feat of winning four Grand Slams in a row. On the final stage, he faced his old rival Nadal, who had won seven consecutive games. Nadal was chasing his eighth French Open title and trying to surpass Bjorn Borg to become the player with the most French Open titles in history. The two sides launched a peak showdown.

In the fourth set, Nadal led 2:1, but Djokovic fought back from the third set, winning eight games in a row. Not only did he force Nadal to lose the first set of that tournament, but he also led 2:0 in the fourth set.

Nadal then struggled to hold his serve and stopped losing consecutive games. At this time, rain interrupted the final for the third time, and then because it was getting late, the event organizer announced that the game would be postponed to Monday.

In the next match, Nadal regained his form, came from behind to win in the fourth set, and defeated Djokovic with a total score of "3:1" to become the champion.

After the race, people naturally put forward a bold hypothesis: if there had been no continuous rain interference, if the race had been 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.

Of course, the French Open later completed fundraising and obtained permission from the city hall to add roofs to the two large stadiums to ensure that the competition would not be interrupted or even postponed due to natural conditions such as rain and nightfall, and the situation where the event was postponed to Monday was largely avoided.

However, in the first week of the Grand Slam tournament, the small golf course without a roof on the outfield is the protagonist, and weather interference is still a factor that cannot be ignored.

In order to alleviate this predicament a little, the French Open has always insisted on moving the tournament schedule forward by one day, kicking off on the previous Sunday.

It is precisely because of this that the first week of the French Open is the most special.

The schedules of the other three Grand Slams often follow corresponding rules. For example, on Monday, the men's singles are in the upper half and the women's singles are in the lower half; on Tuesday, the women's singles are in the upper half and the men's singles are in the lower half. Everything has a traceable pattern, and after the draw comes out, the audience can make their judgment.

But the French Open is not like that. It is the only Grand Slam tournament where the first round of matches is evenly distributed over three days.

That is to say, the first round of the men's and women's singles events, a total of 128 matches, were all shuffled and distributed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with no strict distinction between the upper and lower halves; naturally, by Wednesday, the schedule was rearranged according to the zones, and it was full of surprises.

Of course, such a unique schedule also ensures the balance of the French Open schedule.

Top superstars including the Big Four, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and others can be evenly distributed over three match days.

At the same time, the host players will have more opportunities to be in the spotlight.

In addition, for players who need to play on Wednesday, the games will be scheduled on Monday or Tuesday. This is the only clue about the schedule after the draw is released.

Everything is for the 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 sparked heated discussions among reporters and netizens.

Like Melbourne Park, Roland Garros has three large stadiums and twenty smaller stadiums. However, compared to Melbourne, Paris has been under tremendous economic pressure. Whether it is adding a roof or expanding the stadium, they have always encountered many problems.

Currently, Roland Garros is building a new stadium. Due to limited available space, it is not a large stadium, but only a medium-sized stadium that can accommodate 5,000 people. However, after its completion, this stadium will still become a new landscape of the French Open.

The three large stadiums at this stage are the Philippe Chatrier Stadium, the Suzanne Lenglen Stadium and Stadium No. 1. The largest of them, the center stadium, Philippe Chatrier, can accommodate up to 15,000 spectators, just like the Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open. It is undoubtedly the jewel in the crown.

The opening match of this year's French Open will be played by last year's runner-up Halep.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

At this point, some people may be confused, why Halep? It's not to question Halep, after all, she is also the third seed this year, but there are obviously more suitable choices besides her, but why is it 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, the host players will get home court treatment, and the four Grand Slams are no exception. The host players can often enter the large stadiums and get more opportunities to show off; but the other three Grand Slams are not as bold and direct as the French Open, and can even be said to be naked -

Other Grand Slams will take rankings and past performances into consideration. Otherwise, it would seem unreasonable to arrange an unknown host qualifier or wildcard player to enter the center court. But the French Open does not do that. They just roll up their sleeves and do it. Everything else is just a passing cloud.

Therefore, at the French Open, you can often see some incredible schedules. When some French players enter the three large stadiums, even the local audiences are full of questions, "Who?"

The interesting thing is that the local audiences don't care, as long as they are from the host country, they will give unconditional support and don't give any face to those highly ranked popular superstars. It has to be said that at Roland Garros, the title of the Big Four is not very useful.

What’s more, Rodina was playing against the third seed, so the schedule was arranged like this.

As you can imagine, controversy is foreseeable.

(End of this chapter)