The “night sessions” of the French Open are not very popular, especially in times of Corona. The reason for this is the nightly curfew up to and including June 8th, which ensures that the games have to take place at a later hour without spectators. Daniil Medvedev (Russia) has now criticized this system.
For this year’s tennis tournament in Paris, for the first time in tournament history, Amazon secured the exclusive rights to broadcast the “night sessions”. The spicy thing here is that all games that are played during the night are also the “top games of the day”. Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams protested against these fixings and expressed their wish to Guy Forget, the tournament director of the French Open, to only serve during the day – and thus in front of spectators – in the course of the tournament. While their wish was granted, Daniil Medvedev apparently fell on deaf ears: his quarter-final match against Stefanos Tsitsipas was scheduled for Tuesday evening and thus took place without spectators.
Daniil Medvedev senses injustice: does “Roland Garros” put Amazon above tennis fans?
At the press conference after his defeat by Tsitsipas (3: 6, 6: 7 and 5: 7), he openly stated that he was of the opinion that “Roland Garros” would prefer Amazon to the audience. Because the game against Tsitsipas was “definitely the match of the day”.
The tournament benefits from Amazon as a sponsor, but the players and fans are clearly at a disadvantage. After all, it is always an additional motivation for the players to be able to play in front of their fans. The organizers in turn deny them the opportunity to support their stars live in high-class games in the stadium.
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Medvedev also points out an interesting aspect: This year the tournament winner will receive 15 percent less prize money than in previous years – despite the new sponsor Amazon. Then he throws the question directly and a little provocatively into the room, which occupies him in this context: “Where is the money from Amazon?”
