Roland Garros 2024: New changes for an increasingly cutting-edge tournament
This morning the presentation of the new edition of Roland Garros 2024 took place, which will be held from 20 May to 9 June. There is less than a month left until the doors of the Philippe Chatrier open and the tournament begins, as well as on all the other clay courts. The tournament director, Amelie Mauresmo, took part in the presentation, during which they mentioned what new things we can expect this year and what other aspects will remain unchanged.
Roland Garros is more than ready to kick off next May and promises to be an edition that will be difficult to forget, especially for French players and fans. In fact, participants will be able to enjoy a Walk of Fame that will pay homage to local tennis players.
Here are the most important and significant changes regarding the Suzanne-Lenglen course and the prize money to be distributed among the players.
Camp Suzanne-Lenglen will have a new retractable roof
We already knew that the central court, the Philippe Chatrier, could be covered in case of bad weather, but now the second most important court at Roland Garros will also have a new retractable roof that can be closed in just 15 minutes. Furthermore, it will be equipped with LED lighting along the entire perimeter. This pitch will also be the stage for the best qualifying matches during Opening Week.
The evening session does not change
As in previous editions, the Paris tournament will have a single evening session starting at 8.30pm local time. There will therefore be 11 evening sessions, from Sunday 26 May to Wednesday 5 June. In this way, no more than one match will be played per evening and the session time will not be brought forward as had been hypothesized in the past.
Prize money on the rise
A very interesting aspect for players is that this year the tournament prize pool increases by 7.82% compared to last year. Roland Garros will distribute a total of 53.478 million euros, with a very significant increase for the qualifiers and the first three rounds of the main draw.
New furnishings
Furthermore, the four main fields will have new furnishings to give space to modernity: the players’ benches and the chairs for referees and line judges. The new aesthetic will focus on harmony and integration with the red earth of the fields, combining the color ocher and wood.
Changes in wheelchair tennis
One of the most significant changes will concern wheelchair competition. The tournament will include eight additional matches and the creation of four youth events (junior women’s singles, junior men’s singles, junior women’s doubles and junior men’s doubles) taking place on June 6 and 7.
Tickets in digital format
Digitalization arrives at Roland Garros and this year will be the first in which spectators will have to show their ticket through an app previously downloaded on their phone. In this way, we will try to save time in queues and have everything at hand for spectators.
Francesco Paolo Villarico
