Novak Djokovic calls for immediate French Open rule change – ‘it’s not fair’ | Tennis | Sport

Novak Djokovic believes the heat rules at the French Open need to be changed, as players have competed through temperatures in the mid-30s this week. Some, like Jakub Mensik and Casper Ruud, physically struggled in the brutal conditions. The Serbian superstar played his second-round match against Valentin Royer at the hottest point of the day on Wednesday and blew a match point in the third set tiebreak but recovered to win 6-3 6-2 6-7(7) 6-3.

Afterwards, Djokovic questioned what the heat protocol was at Roland Garros, and suggested that they could either suspend play during the day – like at the Australian Open – or start matches later, even if it means competing late into the night when it’s cooler.

The three-time former champion initially thought there was no heat rule in place at the French Open, given that no measures had been taken despite the high temperatures this week. But he was informed that, if the wet bulb globe temperature hits 30.1 degrees Celsius, organisers are able to take action.

The rules outline that a 10-minute rest period may be implemented for female players after the second set, or after the third set for male players. If another temperature threshold is exceeded, matches may be temporarily suspended until the temperature drops.

And Djokovic said: “Okay so it is true that they have a rule. Which is what? Another index forumula combination type of thing? Okay. I don’t know, it’s always a discussion, I guess. But then if you close one roof, then all of the others are playing. It’s not fair also.

“Why would you close centre court and then everyone else has to be playing on the heat? I wouldn’t agree with that even though, of course, for me it would be great if I play on centre to have that roof closed on such a hot day. In Australia we have experienced – I have personally experienced a few times – we have seen in last years that there were some delays of play, like for an hour, two hours, three hours until that upper level bar that crossed the kind of index regulation comes back down. I think that’s fair.”

While some smaller events may not have the capacity to take long breaks in play or delay the schedule, the 24-time Grand Slam champion argued that shouldn’t be the case at the Majors.

“Honestly, with Grand Slams it shouldn’t be an issue, generally, because we have so many courts. We have lights. You know, there’s no issue. You have big courts. You can play the matches. You can reschedule them some other courts and have still the crowd in the stadium and everything,” he added.

“On the other tournaments where you don’t have these kind of facilities and conditions, then that’s a different discussion, obviously. We have some tournaments, I think, on ATP Tour where, for example, Umag in Croatia where matches are starting later in the afternoon, you know, 5pm or something, and they play until deep at night.

“Yeah, is that ideal to go over midnight? Yeah, it’s not. But if you have, you know, certain days that you have extreme heat and conditions, then maybe that’s something to consider.”

Djokovic will be hoping the temperatures will drop before he faces teenage sensation Joao Fonseca in the third round on Friday. “Fonseca has been praised so much in the last couple of years. You know, I think his potential and quality as a tennis player is obvious, no doubt about it,” he said of the 28th seed.

“He’s got, you know, big Brazilian support anywhere he goes. I think he’s a big-stage player. He really loves the occasion, loves to play night sessions. He played a great match with [Jannik] Sinner earlier this year at Indian Wells. He won against [Andrey] Rublev in Australia, straight sets. So he can definitely step up in the big occasion and deliver big shots, big game.”

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