French Open Tennis Tournament Delayed By A Week, Confirm Organisers

French Open tennis tournament will be delayed by one week, organisers confirmed on Thursday.

The French Open was on Thursday delayed by a week to May 30-June 13 in the hope that heightened Covid-19 restrictions in France will have eased by then to allow the maximum number of fans to attend the event. The French tennis federation (FFT) said the decision had been made in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement last month that "a schedule to progressively get cultural and sporting events back up and running would be set up from mid-May onwards, subject to the improvement of the health situation". FFT president Gilles Moretton said the week's delay "will give the health situation more time to improve and should optimise our chances of welcoming spectators at Roland-Garros". "For the fans, the players and the atmosphere, the presence of spectators is vital for our tournament, the spring's most important international sporting event," Moretton added.