Novak Djokovic and Russian players (including Daniil Medvedev) welcome to Roland-Garros “for now”

The French Tennis Federation (FFT), organizer of the French Open, announced the news on Wednesday. Players not vaccinated against Covid-19, including defending champion Novak Djokovic, as well as Russian (including current world number one Daniil Medvedev) and Belarus players are welcome at Roland-Garros (May 22-June 5 )…”for the moment“.

“We impose strict neutrality on Russian and Belarusian players… We remain on the principle of all the Sports Ministries of the European Union and all the key countries around usdeclared the director general of the FFT Amélie Oudéa-Castéra at a press conference. An individual athlete is only banned if he has been selected by his country. It’s the framework, we stick to it. “For the moment“, however, insisted the president of the FFT Gilles Moretton.

Wimbledon could ask Russian players who want to participate in the Major on grass to officially criticize Vladimir Putin for the military intervention in Ukraine. “At this stage, we do not intend to go into the detail of individual personal situations, which we also know can be extraordinarily dependent on the family situations experienced by each other.“, assured Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.

On the side of health restrictions related to Covid, “the indicators are green to have a full power Roland-Garros“, welcomed Gilles Moretton. Thus, Novak Djokovic is expected in Paris where the vaccine pass has been lifted.

“We have learned to be extremely careful, tempered Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. We see that from month to month things can change. In an archi-catastrophic scenario, there is always a way to reconstitute the sanitary bubbles. Anticipation as best we can, vigilance, pragmatism and the goal is obviously not to send home players who arrive to play“.

“Our goal is to have the best possible set“, declared the director of the tournament Amélie Mauresmo while recalling to be ready”to respect what will be put in place” in the country from a health point of view. “All this is very scalable, we take things without too much excitement or disappointment. We try to stay in something neutral. We focus on preparing for the event. The sports platform we will have it a little later (April 11),” she said.