Already repeatedly trimmed, crowd sizes for the French Open have been reduced again before play starting this weekend – to only 1000 spectators per day – because of the worsening coronavirus pandemic in Paris.
The new limit, reduced from 5000 per day, was first announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday.
His office confirmed on Friday that the reduction relates only to spectators, not to players, coaches, organisers and others working at Roland Garros, as Castex first said, causing initial confusion.
“It’s a bit of a tough blow,” tournament director Guy Forget said on Franceinfo radio.
Tickets will be refunded “with a bit of heartache because we are convinced that we would have been able to welcome the 5000 people in question who we had been counting on,” he said.
“Unfortunately, that is the way it is,” Forget said.
As virus cases have climbed, organisers have repeatedly had to scale back their ambitions.
They had been planning, just three weeks ago, to have 11,500 spectators per day, split between three show courts at the Roland Garros site that has been revamped with a new all-weather movable roof for the central Philippe Chatrier arena.
That was then scaled back to 5000 per day and now to only 1000 as Paris and its immediate suburbs this week joined a growing list of French cities with tightened restrictions on crowds and other activities.
The measures are the latest government efforts to combat increasing virus cases and hospitalisations.
France reported more than 16,000 new cases on Thursday a new daily high.
Roland Garros organisers are subjecting players to multiple tests, which Forget said will be repeated every five days if they remain in the draw.
Rather than make their own arrangements, players are also being grouped together in two Paris hotels, on floors reserved for them and where employees are tested, too.
Vehicles that are disinfected after each trip ferry them to Roland Garros.
Forget said the system won’t be quite as strict as at the recent US Open in New York.
“It’s practically impossible to create a totally hermetic bubble,” he said.
Play begins on Sunday.
