The tennis tour is awakening from the Covid shock, atmosphere comes back in Roland Garros. But there are still bizarre scenes.
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–“Alleeeeeez!” The face masks don’t stop the crowd from cheering the players on.
Photo: Anne-Christina Pouljoulat (ATP)
There are still some deck chairs available on the Place des Mousquetaires. The sun is beating down, it’s 28 degrees and smells like sunscreen. Gaël Monfils suddenly plays big on the big screen and keeps raising his hands to watch the audience, for exampleu Applaus zu animate. From the court of Suzanne Lenglen, a couple hundred Meters away, where the Frenchman plays against the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, there are storms of jubilation over and over again.
Monfils has only won one game since the tour resumed in August. He lost eight times in the first round. He, the mood player and showman, cannot play without an audience. The audience is still very limited in Roland Garros, but the thousand in the second largest arena make a lot of noise. It feels like the Private concert by an artist for a select audience. And everyone is aware of the privilege they enjoy.
