Paris Officials Defend Their Finals Start-Time Decision

Written by: Staff on 11th June 2012

Paris Officials Defend Their Finals Start-Time Decision |

French Open officials say they would have started the ill-starred men’s final at 3 p.m. Sunday no matter what in the face of approaching rain. The match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was hung in the fourth set with six-time champion Nadal leading 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 0-2 when play was suspended for a second time due to drizzle.

The Spaniard had complained for an hour to the chair that continuing in the conditions was unfair.

Paris tournament boss Gilbert Ysern emphasized that television does not call the shots. But he said that due to logistics, changing the start time was just not possible,

“While TV do not dictate the schedule, the expectations from various broadcasters are one of the important factor in the schedule every day – but they do not dictate,” said Ysern. “We did not start earlier because arrangements are made weeks and months before the event regarding starting times and all that.

“You cannot change overnight and tell all broadcasters in the world, ‘Sorry, but you have to change everything and wait because we are going to change the schedule of tomorrow’s matches.’

“It doesn’t work like that. Out of respect to all the broadcasters we cannot do it, change it at the last minute, because of risk in terms of the forecast. We could not start any earlier than 3:00 p.m.

Ysern said that consideration to an earlier starting time will likely be on future planning agendas. “If we think it would be a better option to start a bit earlier, we can consider it. We will probably ask ourselves the question when we work on next year’s event.

“Having said that, again, I don’t think as of today that starting at 3:00 is too late for a final here in Paris.”