The French Open has banned alcohol from the stands in a bid to clamp down on fan behaviour at Roland Garros.
The primary week of the match has seen a raucous environment and there was an incident on Wednesday when Belgian David Goffin claimed a spectator spat chewing gum at him throughout his 5 units victory over France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
On the identical day, world No 1 Iga Swiatek requested followers to be quiet throughout factors in her thrilling win in opposition to Naomi Osaka.
Event director Amelie Mauresmo additionally stated safety can be improved and umpires shall be instructed to be stricter with the gang throughout the match.
“Alcohol was until now authorised in the stands. Now it’s over,” stated Mauresmo. “The umpires are actually going to be much more strict to additional respect to the gamers and respect the sport.
“That is one thing that we’re not going to tolerate, to overstep these two issues. That is for positive. So umpires have fairly an vital position on this matter.
“And definitely in terms of security, we’re going to try to see which people are maybe making (trouble), because I think it’s a few individuals at some point that are overstepping.”
Mauresmo stated the one that allegedly spat gum at Goffin had not been recognized and that no spectators had been ejected from the match thus far.
She added: “We tried to gather information yesterday on what happened and how we can do things – so these new rules are from this morning. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Goffin: Lots of people are complaining
Fan noise is nothing new in tennis as gamers typically have points with shouting in between serves or simply earlier than a serve.
Nonetheless, Goffin – a veteran of the game – feels it is gone too far and is “starting to become ridiculous”.
“A lot of people are complaining. A lot of umpires feel that there is a lot of disrespect,” he added.
“This is repeated a lot in the locker room and among the ATP authorities. We’re going to have to do something about that.
“I feel it solely occurs in France. At Wimbledon, clearly, there’s not that. Or in Australia both. On the US Open, it is nonetheless reasonably quiet. Right here, it is a actually unhealthy environment.”