'They have just started building what's going to be a retractable roof'

  • last year

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Transcript
00:00 most of what's going to be going on over the next coming months is the work on the
00:04 Suzanne Longleyn court just behind me here. What's happening as you can
00:07 probably see is they've just started building what's going to be a
00:09 retractable roof and that they aim to finish it by the end of the year
00:14 certainly then in time for next year's French Open which will be taking place
00:18 ahead just a few weeks before the start of the Olympics. That's where some of
00:23 the tennis is going to be played out obviously over all the rest of the
00:26 courts as well as well as the Philippe Chasserie, the central court, but it's
00:29 also where the boxing is going to be held. So boxing coming to Roland-Garros
00:33 is quite a different sport from what's usually held here as you mentioned every
00:37 year at the end of May with the French Open normally being held here. And apart
00:41 from that Roland-Garros is pretty much ready to roll because the big
00:44 refurbishments took place over the last few years with that other retractable
00:48 roof on the central court and the general refurbishments around the rest
00:53 of the courts and the new building of new courts as well which have
00:58 basically were needed to try and keep Roland-Garros up to date with the likes of
01:03 other venues that welcome other Grand Slams such as Wimbledon. But apart from
01:06 that from what we hear from the organizers here everything is pretty
01:09 much ready and they expect to have though quite a different atmosphere
01:12 during the Olympics, a different one that might be similar in a way to what
01:17 happens in London in 2012 when of course they welcomed the Olympics and tennis
01:21 took place at Wimbledon. Slightly different atmosphere to when obviously
01:25 fans come to see their favorite players. Well here it
01:28 will be fans supporting probably their home countries. Well we can't talk about
01:32 the Olympics without talking about the sports themselves so as far as tennis
01:35 goes who will be defending their titles?
01:39 Well last time around Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic they were the winners
01:44 on the single side on both the men's and the women's but since then it's a very
01:48 different story. Of course recently there's a certain Mr. Carlos Alcaraz
01:52 who's come on the scene. He's shaken things up especially for the younger
01:56 generation. He wowed us just a few weeks ago at Wimbledon so we'll see how this
02:01 time he can manage on clay. And of course on the women's side well Iga
02:05 Svantec she's taken the women's tournament by a storm and well the
02:10 the defenders of their titles from last year round have learned from last time
02:13 around are not in the same position as they are today. But there is one man
02:17 Aaron who we cannot mention when we're talking about clay when we're talking
02:20 about Ronald Gãoz and that of course is Rafael Nadal the king of clay as he's
02:25 known. Well whether he's gonna be playing here of course we hope so. He is in a way
02:29 on his way out at his age of his career. He's proven everything that he has
02:34 anyway with his 14 wins at the French Open but the big question is whether
02:39 he'll be taking part in the French Open and then the Olympics after that perhaps
02:43 after making it home for him he's gonna be slowly making it into his retirement
02:47 at that point and perhaps it might be where he wraps up his career. What's for
02:51 sure is seeing perhaps a final between him and the younger generation of Spain
02:56 so Carlos Sáquez or perhaps between Djokovic who's still going very strong
02:59 would be absolutely beautiful. It's what dreams are made of and definitely
03:03 would be beautiful not for just for the fans but for the history of tennis.

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