Alizé Cornet revealed information this Tuesday, June 28 at a press conference that had the effect of a bomb in the world of tennis. It all started when the 37th in the world was asked about the packages of Marin Cilic and Matteo Berrettini, forced to leave Wimbledon (Editor’s note: London Grand Slam) after positive tests for Covid-19. The 32-year-old athlete then decided to draw a parallel with the organization of Roland Garros, the Parisian tournament which took place from May 22 to June 5. She thus revealed the existence of an epidemic focus during the competition, which would have been voluntarily passed over in silence.
“The Covid, now, is back in mores. There are vaccines. There have always been injuries and illnesses. At Roland-Garros, there was an epidemic of Covid-19 and nobody talked about it. In the locker room, everyone got it and we didn’t say anything“said the Niçoise, in front of the journalists totally amazed by what they had just heard.
“A tacit agreement”
“We all might have had the flu, three symptoms, itchy throat and we’re playing, we’re fine. At Roland-Garros, there must have been a few cases and it must have been a tacit agreement between us. We’re not going to self-test to get ourselves into trouble. I saw girls wearing masks because they didn’t want to pass it on… But I won’t say more” she continued. As a reminder, the Covid-19 pandemic has particularly disrupted the organization of tennis tournaments since it emerged in 2020, between player isolations, tournament cancellations and clusters.
Some players have even refused to be vaccinated against the virus, causing some questions about how to manage tournaments. This is the case of world number 3 Novak Djokovic, who missed the Australian Open at the start of the year, for not having presented a valid vaccination passport. He had nevertheless managed to participate in Roland-Garros last May since the director of the tournament Amélie Mauresmo had judged that in “the current state of affairs, nothing stands in the way of his participation”.