Will Roland Garros get a second Centre Court, covered?

Newly elected President of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) Jean Gachassin gave this week his first press conference announcing the project of extension of Roland Garros and the construction of a second Centre Court, covered of course.

“My goal is to develop Roland Garros and this necessarily implies the construction of a new Centre Court,” Gachassin explained. “There is so much concurrence nowadays. Every other big tournament has his Centre Court Covered now and we don’t. We were maybe the best tournament a few years ago, but now we fell behind. We absolutely need a covered Centre Court.”

Negotiations are in progress with the mayor of Paris.

Second topic of the press conference was the Davis Cup team of which Lionel Roux has been named new head coach. The possible arrival of former professional Yannick Noah has also been mentioned.

“Yannick called me saying ‘first take care of your election, and when it’s over, we are going to talk about it’. I don’t know what is going to happen. He seems to be motivated; it is his passion, so we are going to talk about it… Personally I would be delighted if he is joining the staff of the Davis Cup team.”

So to be continued…