At Roland Garros
Final before the hour eagerly awaited by the public, will the men’s quarter-final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic be reserved on Tuesday for Amazon subscribers who hold the exclusivity of the night sessions at Roland-Garros or broadcast on daytime public service via France Télévisions? It is to this thorny question that Amélie Mauresmo, the new director of the Parisian tournament, will have to answer Monday afternoon. The suspense remains intact but whatever the decision of the ex-player, teeth will cringe in one of the two camps.
Behind the scenes, the two broadcasters have placed their pawns to win the timpani with the assurance of obtaining a large audience. “Without entering into controversy, I think that the vast majority of French people would not understand why the match of the fortnight would not be in the clear on a free channel”, thus dropped the presenter Laurent Luyat on the antenna of France Télévisions, specifying all the same that the programming Tuesday evening, in favor of Amazon, had the advantage. In the ranks of the historic broadcaster of the tournament, we try to play the card of seduction by highlighting the general interest and by arguing that the Parisian tournament is part, in the same way as the Tour de France, of the heritage of the country. . An argument which was heard according to an internal source of the French audiovisual group, even showing itself “reasonably confident” on the outcome of the file.
Except that Amazon has no intention of letting go of the quarter-final clash. The American group acquired since last year and until 2023 the exclusive right to broadcast the night session, which generally opposes big names on the circuit. No communication was made but a tweet presenting the meeting between the Spaniard and the Serb was published on Sunday. Amazon, which wrote a large check in 2019 (the amount has not been revealed but a 25% increase in rights has been mentioned) would not appreciate the poster escaping its subscribers.
Everything will therefore depend on the schedule of the meeting. If the tournament management decides to play the match in the afternoon, France Télévisions will win the jackpot, at the risk of strongly upsetting the new broadcaster who will have to settle for a necessarily less prestigious match for his evening. A difficult choice for Amélie Mauresmo, who is well aware of the challenges of programming choices since she was a former consultant… at Prime Video.
The manager will also have to take into account the wishes expressed by the players. Nadal officially does not have a say in terms of programming but when the Spaniard, thirteen times winner Porte d’Auteuil, speaks, his word is worth gold. The Majorcan has already sent a message to the tournament management after his victory against Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16. And this one does not suffer from any ambiguity: he wants to play in the afternoon, when the conditions are more favorable to his game. “I prefer to play by day, I know Roland-Garros by day, and it’s true also that I am aware that I don’t know what can happen next year. Every time I play here, I am aware that it may be my last match in this tournament,” explained the king of clay, who could not have done better to put pressure on the tournament management. .
Late in the evening, Carlos Alcaraz made it known that he would not like to play a third time in the evening either, in particular because recovery is more difficult. “I’m not saying that I mind playing in the evening, but obviously I have less recovery time, if I finish very late all the time. When you finish at midnight, with everything behind it, dinner, the physio, trying to come down in terms of adrenaline, it’s more difficult to recover, ”he explained. “If I play a third time (in the evening), honestly it seems unfair to me.”
The equation is anything but simple to solve. Amélie Mauresmo has also canceled a speech initially scheduled for Tuesday morning in the stadium to postpone it to Wednesday. Proof, no doubt, that the burning subject is the subject of a vast debate in the ranks of the organizers and that it will probably not be decided when it is time to dip the croissant in the coffee this Monday.
