PARIS (AP) — French Open prize money has increased by about 10% for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million).
The total amount is up 5.3 million euros from last year. Play begins on Sunday, May 24 at Roland Garros in western Paris.
Men’s and women’s singles champions each receive 2.8 million euros and the runners-up 1.4 million euros. Semifinalists earn 750,000 euros and first round losers get 87,000 euros.
Men’s and women’s doubles winners pocket 600,000 euros and the mixed doubles champions get 122,000 euros.
Last year, Carlos Alcaraz staged an epic comeback to beat Jannik Sinner in a five-set final and Coco Gauff defeated Aryna Sabalenka for the women’s title.
There will be an opening ceremony before the men’s and women’s finals, lasting about six minutes, with French choreographer Benjamin Millepied in charge of the program.
Also for the first time, players can wear data-collecting portable devices on court in order to gain information on their physical performances, tournament director Amélie Mauresmo said at a news conference on Thursday.
Privacy for players
Mauresmo repeated the importance of privacy for players — an issue raised by Iga Swiatek and Gauff at this year’s Australian Open.
Gauff’s racket-smashing away from the court went viral. Swiatek said the seemingly limitless access-all-areas cameras that track players made them feel they were being watched like “animals in the zoo.”
Without mentioning the Australian Open itself, Mauresmo said tennis should “maintain respect for privacy” and have a secluded space.
“Players need a private area, something which will not change,” she said. “No cam access (there).”
Upholding traditions
This year, a local amateur beat Sinner and went on to become a millionaire in Australian dollars after winning the newly invented 1 Point Slam at the Australian Open.
Don’t expect it at the French Open.
“Our ambition is not to repeat everything that’s done elsewhere,” Mauresmo said. “This is not something that corresponds to us, to the image of Roland Garros.”
The French Open is also unflinching on the electronic line-calling adopted by Wimbledon and most big tennis tournaments; instead remaining committed to human line judges.
“They are not 100% reliable,” Mauresmo said, “but our decision was to stick to our way.”
However, Mauresmo was open to women playing five-set matches like their male counterparts.
“You can’t change a format overnight to go from best of three to best of five. But if we think about it, would it be only the semifinal, the final, or for all matches?” the former Wimbledon champion asked. “This could be a win-win situation but we have to talk about this with the women players.”
The former women’s No. 1 would have wanted to.
“As a player when I did the Masters final (in 2005) they had just stopped this,” Mauresmo said. “I would have wanted to do the final in best of five. So maybe one day, you never know.”
Mauresmo was also asked about scheduling for evening matches.
“We will talk about scheduling when the time comes,” she said without going into details. “Nothing is closed and nothing is set in stone, it depends on the draws and the lineups.”
Last year there were a lack of women’s matches during the night sessions.
On the final Saturday there has been one change: The men’s doubles final will be played before the women’s singles final and not afterward.
Entertaining fans
There will be a Jardin des Chefs — a chefs’ garden — for fans to sample French gastronomy in an area next to Court Simonne-Mathieu. A small army of 13 French chefs will work daily, three on duty each day.
The famed Concorde Square — with its iconic Egyptian Obelisk — will again show matches on a big screen for free during the second week from June 3-7.
The tournament will pay tribute to French veteran Gaël Monfils and 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, who are retiring at the end of the season.
Clay is the way
The French Open is synonymous with clay the way Wimbledon is with grass.
Keen to build on that identity, French Tennis Federation director Gilles Moretton said there will be a strong investment in building more clay courts, real or synthetic.
Clay courts currently make up only 13% of courts in France. ___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis