NEWS FROM THE FRENCH (DAY 3)
By Nicolas Bonnet on Thursday 21 May 2015
Draw on Friday!
In less than 24 hours, the draw for the men's and women's singles will take place - Friday 22 May at 11.30 am in the FFT museum, to be exact. Defending champions Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal will be on hand, and the draw will be shown live on Eurosport France and around Roland-Garros stadium on the giant screen which backs on to Suzanne-Lenglen Court.
Julien Benneteau pulls out
One half of the reigning men's doubles pairing, Julien Benneteau, has been forced to pull out of the 2015 French Open. The man who partnered Edouard Roger-Vasselin to an historic all-French victory last year has not seen any action since the ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and is still struggling with a stomach muscle injury. This is the first time that local boy "Bennet" will miss out on his home tournament since he made his debut back in 2002.
Nadal already racking up the awards
Roland-Garros has not even started yet and Rafael Nadal has already picked up some silverware. The nine-time French Open winner was awarded the "Grand Vermillion" medal by the mayor of the City of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, at city hall on Thursday morning. The medal is the highest honour which the municipality of the French capital can bestow.
The champion and the mayor also inaugurated two exhibitions dedicated to the tournament and which are going to be on display at city hall until 23 June in the "Paris rendez-vous de l’Hôtel de Ville" section. The first showcases the work of Steve Hiett, who was the official photographer of the 2014 French Open, while the second shows visitors how the New Roland-Garros will look.
Picking up a padel…
This year, spectators at Roland-Garros will have the chance to discover a different kind of racquet sport that is currently booming, namely padel tennis. Youngsters aged 11 and over as well as adults can sign up to play at "Le Tennis Club" on Court No.13. Padel is played as a doubles sport on a smaller court than tennis, measuring 10 by 20 metres. Service is under-arm, but the main difference is that the ball is allowed to rebound off the surrounding walls, windows and fencing. Some 10 million people around the world already play the sport.
For under-11s, "Le Tennis club" has its own "Galaxie tennis", introducing youngsters to the game in a fun way.