Madrid Masters to follow Roland Garros example and permit spectators

With competitive tennis set resume from August most tournaments, including the US Open, are to be held behind closed doors due to restrictions imposed by coronavirus.

The French Open will buck the new trend by allowing a reduced number of spectators to attend matches, and now it has been confirmed that the Madrid Masters will follow suit.

France and Spain began to emerge from strict lockdowns last month after the countries had suffered some of the highest global death rates from Covid-19.

“We are very confident that we will be able to have some spectators,” Lopez told Essentially Sports. “Yes, we are working on that with the Government of Madrid. We presented our protocols a few days ago.

“The government, they were very happy, actually, they were very surprised of how strict is our protocols in terms of safety for the fans and especially for the players. We are very confident that we will be able to have some spectators.

The coronavirus pandemic and its ongoing impact on world sport has left tennis unable to settle on a consistent strategy for implementing safe practice, with many country's still at different stages in their recovery from the virus.

It had been hoped that the US Open could possible still accommodate spectators by moving the tournament from New York to Miami, though the idea has since been quashed and the Open will go ahead on schedule but without fans. Lopez, though, says that tennis needs to find a way to proceed.

“Every tournament now needs to provide a lot of safety because after everything that happened in Serbia (the coronavirus outbreak on the Aria Tour) and some other tournaments. I know we are taking risks also when we decided to deliver the event. I think tennis needs to resume.

“And if we do things properly if we provide a good protocol for the players and fans then I think we will be able to resume the tour and we as players will have the chance to compete again and I think this is what we need right now.”