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The French Open has sent tongues wagging after the controversial decision of its organizers to place the tournament in the same week as Roger Federer’s Laver Cup. Since then, many have accused the organizers of being arrogant and inconsiderate. Not just that, the tournament starts just one week after US Open.

However, the wildest of the accusations has now come from a former Australian tennis player. Sam Groth, famously known for hitting the fastest serve, has levelled grave allegations against the French Open.

The current WWOS broadcaster believes that this was a deliberate attempt to hurt the Laver Cup. In fact, he has tried to get to the roots of this alleged controversy. Let’s hear it from the man himself.

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via Imago

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What did Sam Groth say about the French Open? 

Groth has linked the decision of French Open with the Laver Cup-Davis Cup rivalry. In fact, he believes that the ITF and the French tennis federation have collaborated to hurt the still infant Laver Cup –

I think something which is being missed in this is the FFT, the French tennis federation . They are very much in cahoots with the ITF. They’ve been a really big supporter of the new look Davis Cup. Now what they’ve gone and done is they’ve put them in a week that coincides with the Laver Cup which people see as a bit of a threat alongside the ATP Cup to this new look Davis Cup.”

Gerard Pique reformed the Davis Cup to help it cope with the changing times. However, he was not pleased with Federer’s decision to launch a similar tournament. He had a feeling that this was to hurt the traditional world event of tennis.

via Imago

Groth has suggested that this is the latest installment in the rivalry. However, this time, the French Open is the culprit.

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So they’ve gone and basically backed themselves in, put themselves in a situation where they’re trying to I feel, kill the Laver Cup before it starts to get as big as the Ryder Cup for example. They’re sort of looking at creating that sort of model from a tennis point of view.”

Groth didn’t stop here. He believes that the fight could go to the courts. What that would also mean would be a fall out between Roger Federer and the biggest clay court event.

This might go to the court

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“If you gonna go and make players decide between playing this event and play in the French Open, it’s gonna be a heck of a decision for the players to make.I won’t be surprised if this one ends at the court at some time. Coz there’s a lot of sponsors and a lot of money involved. It’s meant to be in Boston this year,it’s gonna be an interesting one there’s a lot to play out still.”

All we know right now is that this is a fallout of the coronavirus. Any other conspiracy theory needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. However, whatever Groth has said is definitely some food for thought.