On June 5, 1983, Yannick Noah won Roland-Garros. Forty years later, no Frenchman has succeeded him on the list, but the tournament intends to mark the anniversary. Its director, Amélie Mauresmo, presented the new features of the 2023 edition on Friday April 21: advanced nights, training sessions open to the public, but above all tributes to the last French winner, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday on May 18.
The charity day organized on Saturday, on the eve of the first day of the tournament, is renamed “Journée Yannick Noah” and a fresco in his image recalling the player but also the person will be unveiled the next day, inside the stadium. The king of places Rafael Nadal, holder of the record of 14 titles, already has his statue there. In addition, other surprises paying tribute to the former captain of the French Davis Cup team are planned but have not yet been revealed.
For the third edition with night sessions, the tournament has tried to solve a number of problems, particularly related to the late end time of the matches, for the players as well as for the public. “We’re going to save half an hour,” said Mauresmo, who wants more festive evening sessions than they could have been. From 8 p.m., a show will warm up the public at the Philippe-Chatrier court “and the first point will be played at 8:30 p.m.” instead of 9 p.m. in the past, assured Mauresmo.
On the other hand, if the matches last more than four hours, despite discussions, it was “not possible for the RATP” to modify its timetables for the last metros. “It will be the same for the Olympics next year,” insisted Mauresmo. To help with the departure of the public, the tournament is “talking with taxi companies”, she added.
The programming of nights last year, the first edition with an evening public after a year under curfew due to Covid-19, had also posed a problem with the posters, with only one women’s match out of the ten night sessions. There will be eleven from this year since the first Sunday, May 28 in 2023, is added.
Nothing has changed this year, with Mauresmo saying it “would be a mistake” to introduce a quota of women’s games for those nights. “I don’t forbid myself anything and it’s the paintings that will guide us,” she said. Contractually, the French Tennis Federation (FFT), organizer of the tournament, must schedule the day’s poster during the night session for the exclusive broadcaster of these matches, Prime Video.
The tournament director also underlined the popular enthusiasm for the qualifying week, which precedes the start of the tournament. The qualifiers represent “enormous potential”, she said, explaining that the practices of the best players would be open to the public on the Philippe-Chatrier court during this week. As for the staffing, it is “being finalized, but will rather be increasing, for an organizational budget of around 300 million euros”, explained the director.