Day 15 - Press conference with tournament's management - Sunday, June 10, 2007

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for being here for this press conference. It is a tradition in the French Open. It is not quite after the tournament, because very important matches are taking place right now. We have the juniors final, and we have this afternoon's final.

First, I would like to make apologies for the absence of Mr. Bimes who is detained by the protocol for this afternoon's match.

We wished to present this press conference to talk about the results of the French international competition in 2007. On my right, I have Dominique Baud, he's director for coordination of the tournament.

And on my left, I have Stephane Simian, who has an essential role. He is the sports manager of the tournament. They will be able to answer your questions.

In the room, we have the major managers of the tournament, Mr. Frederic Longuepee, and for the ticketing. And general administration, we have Michel Grach. For media, Gilbert Foullon.

For the technical part of the tournament, this technical management had a lot to do this year, especially during the first two days of our tournament because of the rain. This 2007 tournament was a great, popular success. We never had as many spectators in the stadium, on the grounds. Almost 450,000 spectators watched this tournament. It's a very high figure. It's a maximum number of spectators. We have no ambition to go beyond that, or at least as long as the facilities will remain as they are now. It's a matter of respect for the public.

The French International Tournament has to be a popular success, otherwise it wouldn't last. Therefore, we believe it is very necessary to expand the grounds without having too much ambition about the number of spectators. What we want is to welcome the crowd in good conditions so they can move about freely. It is a general wish.

More people would like to come, and we would like to respond to their requests. This is why we have a project for extending the stadium. The goals of our tournament were reached this year, the revenues from public relations, from private sources, or from television broadcasting. The turnover of our tournament will reach about 120 million Euros. The total margin, profit margins of the tournament are entirely reinvested in French tennis, in the leagues, and to finance the sports policy of the Federation. One share of those profits is also reinvested in order to improve the facilities of Roland Garros.

The present organization of the French Open is an example for everyone. More than one-third of spectators play tennis, have a license with the French Tennis Federation, and many of them do play tennis themselves. So year after year, the crowd watching the matches knows about tennis, has a high quality. They respect the values of sport. The organization is an example, also, because the results of this competition benefit the whole organization of tennis in France, since all the revenues are reinvested in tennis.

So we have a project for extending our grounds. We would like to modernize the facilities. This would be normally ready in 2011. We have high requirements, so Stand C of the Chatrier Court will be demolished and rebuilt, so that those stands be improved, and so that the magic of the Center Court will be respected. So 80 years after the first match on Center Court, in 2008, the whole Chatrier Court will be renewed.

A second court feature for this 2007 event is its international dimension. It is the major sports event which happens regularly at the international level. 214 countries broadcasted this event. So 3 billion spectators were able to watch the 6200 hours of broadcasting, and 72% of those hours were live.

So among the four Grand Slam tournaments, this is the one which benefits from the widest international broadcasting. We would like to mention the quality of the broadcasting this year. This broadcasting was done by the American channels, and was possible thanks to the remarkable work of image production by France Television in high definition. We believe that that was one of the best feeds for an international sports event. We also observed new trends in broadcasting, so more and more spectators were able to watch on various electronic devices. It can be internet or it can be mobile phones, et cetera. The number of pages on internet being watched increased by more than 6% compared with 2006.

The audience rate on terrestrial channels suffered from the absence of French players in the second week. But internationally, the results are very good. They are stable in Europe. And because of the climate and because of the absence of French players in the second week in France, this figure went down in France. I would like to give the floor to Mr. Simian to talk about the sports results of this tournament, and then we'll be ready to answer your questions.

But before giving the floor to Mr. Simian, I would like to thank Mr. Stefan Fransson to be here, and for the quality of the umpiring during the whole tournament. Thanks to him, the sports conditions are respected.

Stephane, you have the floor.

STEPHANE SIMIAN: Thank you, Jean-Francois.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. The sports results of this tournament is remarkable once again, in spite of the bad weather in the beginning of the tournament. And it's when we have difficult conditions like that that we realize how it is important to have this Sunday start. So, in spite of the two days' rain, we were able to catch up on all the matches that were late. So we were able to provide a rest day to most of the players, and, therefore, the fair play among them was respected.

On Tuesday, we had 82 matches on 18 courts; this is a record in the French Open. Among them, 60 matches played by men players. So I would like to congratulate Mr. Stefan Fransson and his team, as Jean-Francois did, because they did a remarkable work during those two weeks.

The Sunday start is very important for several reasons. First, it gives us more freedom for scheduling, but also for the players, for the tournament, for tennis in general. There is more coverage. We are happy to see Gael Monfils playing well, though the French players had average results. Olivier Patience played one of the best matches against Djokovic on Lenglen Court in this tournament, and the talent of Marion Bartoli was confirmed. I believe she will remain in the Top 10 for a while.

And Nathalie Dechy won the mixed doubles. Alize Cornet is playing the final of the juniors. It will start in a couple of minutes. So we might hope a second French victory there.

The absence of Tatiana Golovin, who had very good results lately and was the best chances for the French players, was a damage to French tennis. And also Amelie Mauresmo was not very well prepared because she had surgery, appendicitis, so she was not able to prepare this tournament in good conditions.

I am sure that Richard Gasquet, who had a very painful experience here with the draw, the lessons from it.

And I would like to talk about the great tennis of foreign players. We had the four top players in the world ranking in the semi. The four players in the semis will be the top four players in the rankings.

On the women's side, seven among the eight top players were in the quarterfinal. It's a remarkable result, so the best players were all in the last part of the tournament.

I would like to talk also about the Handisport Tournament. It was the first time we organized that. It was a great success with the presence of all the world top players. And I would like to talk about the beautiful performance of Florence Gravellier , who threatened Esther Vergeer in the final. We know that Esther Vergeer has not lost since 81 matches, so I think it's a remarkable game she played.

I would like to talk about anti-doping. 182 anti-doping tests were made during those two weeks. It's much more than last year. We only had 157. It is a good improvement. We are happy of it and we are going to continue, with the cooperation of the ITF, to improve those tests. This is what I have to say about the sports side.

About the anti-doping tests, I would like to add that we had a greater number of them, but also after the quarterfinals, we systematically researched the EPO, and we had urine tests randomly, and so the forbidden products which are researched very numerous. This is what I wanted to tell you.

And, of course, we are ready to answer any questions you might have. It can be to Dominique Baud, Stephane Simian, or you can ask questions to the other managers in the room.

Q. I have two questions, although the answers will be difficult. Before 2011, what are you going to do so that it will be easier to walk around the grounds? It's terrible even for security. And the second question, the black market around the stadium, I never saw that in Wimbledon or US Open or Australian Open. Maybe the Paris city, the police, well, I don't know, the police never do anything. We are really harassed by people.

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: I'm going to start with the black market. There are two ways of improving the fight against the black market. The first solution doesn't depend on us, unfortunately. I just believe we should make efforts so that this black market activity be a crime, so that this black market would diminish. Because this is bad for the image of our tournament. It is a matter of legislation. I think the French legislation should take this into account to fight against the black market.

And the second solution depends on us. We believe that one way of fighting against is to have electronic tickets. We should have more than 20% of electronic tickets. This is the figure we reached this year. When most tickets will be electronic tickets, people will have to come to the stadium with the ticket and the necessity of proving their identity. Then I think it will be a good way of fighting against the black market.

And also, what we want to do is, before 2008, to have more than 20% electronic tickets. We tested it this year; it works. So we are going to increase the number of electronic tickets. For us, it's the best way of fighting against the black market.

Talking about the extension project, and the way of walking around the stadium, you're talking about the extension project. The goal is to have in 2011 extended facilities, so the constraints of the organization be not so limiting. And also to have retractable roofs so that we can have more matches, because we want to respect the crowd, but also the players.

It is not a financial issue. It's respecting the class of the tournament. If we want the reputation of the tournament to be preserved, we need to improve the freedom of organization. We need to have extended facilities. The goal is not to have more spectators, but it is to welcome the spectators in better conditions, to have better scheduling, and to guarantee a better broadcasting of the matches.

So it's not a financial goal; it is to guarantee a good image for our tournament. I'm not saying that before 2011 we are not going to do anything to improve the conditions for the spectators. As I said already, our goal is not to increase the number of spectators. We believe the figures we reached this year is a ceiling. So we are going to try to improve the flow of people walking in the stadium. So we are going to concentrate on details helping to improve the welcome we are providing to the spectators. We are going to help people to have more places to sit, to be able to walk around easily, and we are going to try to have better protection against the rain.

So we are going to start thinking about all that at the end of this tournament, so that before next year, we'll be able to improve the conditions for the crowd. It is important, because this is part of the image of our tournament.

Q. About welcoming the public. This year they were worse, it was terrible. You couldn't get in and out. It was worse than before. Because there is a small space where people come in. And you have the hostesses, the boxes, it is impossible to go in and out.

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: Yes, it is something we are thinking about with Mr. Longuepee. We are going to think hard with the technical staff to improve the access to the stadium specifically for the first week.

Q. In spite of the increase in anti-doping tests, we believe the results are still not very clear.

STEPHANE SIMIAN: I would like to remind you something. Since January the first of this year, the International Federation has been organizing all the anti-doping tests in tennis. Which means that all the tests made in tennis are under the responsibility of the International Federation. It can be an ATP event, in WTA events, in Grand Slam events and also in Fed Cup and Davis Cup events. Those tests are sent to the Montreal laboratory, which means all the results are consistent. There is a follow-up. And all the results are completely transparent, because all the results are communicated to WADA, and all the results of the French Open will be communicated to our president.

Q. But Chatenay-Malabry is a lot closer than Montreal?

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: This year there's been a major change in legislation concerning the anti-doping policy. The French Federation acknowledged the International Anti-Doping Agency, which is a sort of international policeman for anti-doping. So, all the anti-doping tests for international events, all the result of the tests are under the responsibility and control of the World Anti-Doping Agency. I trust this agency to be entirely responsible in fighting against doping.

Since that change in legislation before 2006, it was under the responsibility of French authorities. And this was depending on the Chatenay-Malabry Laboratory.

But since 2007, the International Federation is responsible for the anti-doping tests and, in whatever sport, the International Federations wish to choose themselves their own laboratory, provided that laboratory be accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

So, the criteria of quality, the standards, is up to the expectations of this World Agency. The ITF wants to give all the tests of the four Grand Slam tournaments to the same laboratory, because they wanted all the results to be homogeneous. And this laboratory is the Montreal laboratory. It has a high scientific quality. It works in close collaboration with the Chatenay-Malabry Laboratory. It has been chosen by the ITF, because that laboratory made the best scientific and financial proposal.

Since we are the French Federation, we, of course, wish that the Chatenay-Malabry Laboratory be able to apply, in order to obtain the analysis from the ITF. It is up to this laboratory to make its application. But we are, for the time being, very satisfied with the quality of the Montreal Laboratory. And this laboratory in Montreal is working in close collaboration with the Chatenay-Malabry Laboratory for EPO.

Q. Concerning the extension by 2011, so Center Court will be an ex-court then? Or are you thinking about other projects? Maybe put a dome, a 500 meters away from here?

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: We are even further than just thinking about it. Now we are studying the extension towards Port d'Auteuil, 120 meters away. Using the Georges Hebert Stadium. And there are two advantages. First, it's a beautiful entry to the tournament in Port d'Auteuil, very close to transportation.

And second, this site has two hectares and is only 500 meters away from the main stadium, which is exactly the same than the distance between Court No. 1, and the courts behind Suzanne Lenglen. So there are two advantages. In 2006, we started talking with the technical services of Paris, and we checked if this project was compatible with the land, and the studies are positive. We know that that land can have a retractable roof Center Court and everything for welcoming the crowd.

So this will help the French Open, but it can also be used for indoor tournaments. And we believe that maybe in 2011, we can organize the Masters Series of Paris in that place, instead of Bercy. We are having talks with the city about that. We are making a call of tender to architects in order to respond to the needs we have for scheduling our tournament. So we will have a very international competition among architects, a very high quality competition. It is very important because we believe that this project will have an impact on the area of Port d'Auteuil. It will improve the quality of that area.

So we would like the best international architects to make their offers, and we will be able to talk with the neighbors of this area and try to find the best solution for recreating a new area. We have been talking with the neighbors associations. And the tournament we will have here, and in the extended part, will be the same tournament, the only thing is that we will have less constraints. Our tournament will not become bigger. So we are going to, in fact, decrease everything that can disturb the neighborhood, instead of increasing the disturbances. But we will have to explain that to them, and we started talking to them.

Another goal which is important is not to have an endless increase in the number of spectators. No. What we want to do is to improve the facilities to have a good respect of the international dimension of our tournament. If the grounds are more extended, it will be easier to walk around. So we need to have this international competition among architects.

Q. About the lack of transparency of the anti-doping test results. Are you going to communicate with the results with the new laboratory? Do we have more delays? Can you say, maybe, in three months we will communicate the results? Are things changing?

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: The delays are not changing. The Montreal Laboratory committed themselves to the ITF to respect the same delays of the Chatenay-Malabry Laboratory for 2006. As Stephane reminded you, all the results are communicated by the Montreal Laboratory, not only to the International Federation of Tennis, but also to the World Anti-Doping Agency. This means everything is transparent. I think the time necessary for these analysis is ten days. So ten days later, ten days after the tournament, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the ITF will know ten days from now, because we are at the end of the tournament, what the results are.

I believe that international developments with the world agency, the UNESCO convention. I remind you that before ratifying this convention, the world agency had no legal right to exist. It was a private organization. Since this convention at UNESCO, and since the ratification of this convention, there is a legal recognition of this organization. And now this agency can guarantee transparency, whatever sport, for all analysis carried out in the laboratory.

Q. So after ten days, you're talking about transparency. I would like to give you an example. One of the two champions is positive, are you going to say so to the press? This is what is important. This is what I call transparency. I'm not accusing anyone. I'm just talking about transparency. You're talking about the transparency of the tests and themselves, but what about the press.

JEAN-FRANCOIS VILLOTTE: I understand your question. I'm going to answer very directly. I'm going to be straightforward. It is up to the International Tennis Federation and the World Anti-Doping Agency to decide when they want to communicate the results. It is their responsibility. If it was a national competition, it would be the French agency which would do it. Now it's the responsibility of the International Tennis Federation and the World Agency

And secondly, about the delay, we have a procedure which makes sure that the analysis is right, and the defense is respected. So there is a counter-analysis on Sample B, so there are a number of procedures to be respected. And it is after this counter-analysis of Sample B that the positivity is confirmed or not. And after that, the sanctions are organized. I don't believe the World Agency would not be straightforward in this process.