sport news Mauresmo admits French Open forgot about fans after Nadal epic left thousands ... trends now
From French Open tournament director, there were two startling admissions this morning.
The first, in the wake of an early hours classic between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, was that little thought has been given to how spectators get home after the new night sessions at Roland Garros.
The second, addressing why men's matches have outnumbered women's 9-1 in the new late evening slot, saw her break what can be a taboo within tennis. She fairly bluntly conceded that, presently, the male contests are generally more appealing.
French Open tournament director Ameile Mauresmo (R) admits they forgot about fans
Certainly nothing could match the unique draw of Nadal versus Djokovic. That ended at 1.15am this morning, with temperatures in the mid-fifties and many spectators huddled under blankets like pensioners on a windswept seafront.
With a 9.03pm start time what did the French Open expect? Infact it could have been much later, with the preceding match narrowly avoiding a fifth set, just like Djokovic should have taken Nadal into a decider.
The scene afterwards was of thousands of punters desperately trying to find a way home, something Mauresmo and her team appear not to have factored in.
'That will be one of our priorities in the future,' she said. 'We haven't planned anything yet, but obviously we need to organise ourselves differently with the Department of Transport of Paris with bus systems, the underground system.
'If we continue with these night sessions in this direction, people need to have a way to come back home, as they should. We do not have the means to organise this for 15,000 people yet. For the moment, there is nothing.'
It should be said that there are scarier places to be stranded in Paris during the early hours than the 16th Arrondisement that is home to this beautiful stadium.
Fans were left stranded after the late-night match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
That Stade de France in St. Denis, for example. It would be wrong to draw too much equivalence between the frightening plight of Liverpool and Madrid supporters last weekend, and those stumbling around for
