30 May 2024 , 13:40
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French Open chiefs have banned spectators from drinking alcohol in the stands.
It comes after a fan spat chewing gum at David Goffin at Roland Garros after the Belgian veteran beat Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in five sets on Court 14 on Tuesday. Afterwards he hit out at the boisterous crowd, who had been supporting their compatriot vociferously, claiming one fan even spat their gum towards him.
Now spectators will no longer still be allowed to drink in their seats. Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo also said security has been beefed up and umpires instructed to be stricter with the crowd during the match.
“Alcohol was until now authorised in the stands. Now it’s over,” said Mauresmo. “The umpires are really going to be even more strict to further respect to the players and respect the game.
“This is something that we’re not going to tolerate, to overstep these two things. That’s for sure. So umpires have quite an important role in this matter.
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“And definitely in terms of security, we’re going to try to see which people is maybe making (trouble), because I think it’s a few individuals at some point that are overstepping.”
Mauresmo said that the person who spat gum at Goffin had not yet been identified and that no spectators had been ejected from the tournament so far.
She added: “We’ve tried to gather yesterday information on what happened and how we can do the things so these kind of new rules are from this morning.
"So we’ll see how it goes.”
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