ROLAND GARROS

June 4, 2026

Gilles Moretton

David Haggerty

Press Conference

GILLES MORETTON: (In English.) I'm going to say most of it in French. Sorry. I could do it in English. I will do it in French first, and then I will translate some of what I'm going to say for David.

First of all, thanks, Dave, for being here, and congratulations for those 50 years.

(In French.) For these 50 years of wheelchair tennis at ITF. As for the French Tennis Federation, I would like to thank all the teams that are here with us today. Julien, his teams, Yannick Noah, who is in charge of what we call para-tennis. In para-tennis category, we have blind tennis, and we also have deaf and hard-of-hearing tennis. We are developing these types of tennis.

We have decided to promote as one of our different types of tennis as para-tennis, pickleball, padel tennis, and court tennis. Para-tennis and wheelchair tennis, for us here in France, is present everywhere in France in our clubs. With Julien and Yannick Noah, we have established a para-tennis tour. So we are going underground, meeting people with disabilities to allow them to have access to this type of tennis.

So this is a new path we are entering at the French Federation. We are very honored today to pay tribute to seven personalities.

Dave, you do understand a little French, don't you? Wonderful.

What I wanted to say -- and I'm going to wrap up to give the floor to Dave, because he's the one who is going to be talking about these last 50 years that have mattered so much for the development of wheelchair tennis everywhere in the world -- it is still a challenge, though, but I just wanted to tell him that we are so glad and happy to be able to host this event here at Roland Garros.

Obviously the legacy of our Olympic and Paralympic Games here in Paris in 2024 is still fresh. Such a huge success here at Roland Garros. There were incredible wheelchair tennis matches that took place here, and I hope that we will be able to build on this legacy in the future.

So I am very glad to be able to work hand-in-hand with ITF in the development of wheelchair tennis everywhere. I wish that the ceremony on the Suzanne-Lenglen Court that will take place later on today will truly show how much our inductees have done for the development of wheelchair tennis.

I would like to recognize the presence of recently-elected Beatrice Ronjat, who will play a major role in the development of wheelchair tennis.

Dave, the floor is yours.

DAVID HAGGERTY: (In English.) Thank you very much, Gilles. We really appreciate the support and hosting us here and for such a big event in the celebration of 50 years of wheelchair. We're very fortunate that the FFT is not only a member of the ITF but a founding member and a very important member of our Federation. Thank you.

Our Hall of Champions, 50 Years of Wheelchair Tennis, is exceptional. So what we wanted to do was have a Hall of Champions where we're able to honor those that really have been instrumental in helping from the early days until today of the game.

Today we will induct, as Gilles said -- my limited French, I know he talked about seven inductees today -- so we're very, very excited about that.

We've had some inductions earlier in the year in Netherlands. We have one tomorrow in England at Eastbourne. Then we'll be doing something at the U.S. Open. We did something also in Australia.

So I think one of the most important things about wheelchair tennis is if you look at the international federations, we are really the only federation that from many, many years ago integrated wheelchair tennis and tennis onto the highest stages of the game.

Everyone remembers Roland Garros when we were here for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. I think those were some of the finest moments, some of the most memorable. I think, if you remember Oda winning, playing on Chatrier, and winning and taking his wheels off and on the ground. I mean, it was probably one of the most emotional, one of the best pictures in my mind of what wheelchair could be, and on the biggest stage.

Roland Garros, with the Grand Slams, does a fantastic job of hosting wheelchair, as do the other three Grand Slams. But we're also integrating it into some of the higher-level events, so it's truly a professional sport.

We have over 140 tournaments a year. Actually, 160 tournaments a year in more than 60 countries. So it's truly global.

So how did it start? Well, in 1998 -- we're celebrating 50 years, but in 1998 wheelchair tennis was integrated into the International Tennis Federation, and we were the first body -- and more than half of the Olympic sports federations still are separate when it comes to para-sport, so we're really, really proud of what we've been able to do.

The Paralympic Games and the Olympic Games are one of the best platforms to be able to showcase tennis. Our athletes love to compete. I think if we look back in Paris and see Novak Djokovic and what it meant to him to win an Olympic gold medal, I remember the day after, I was staying at the Molitor, and Carlos Alcaraz and his family were there, and I saw Carlos in the morning.

I said, you know, Congratulations.

He said, Why? I lost.

I said, No, you are an Olympian. Yes, you won the silver medal. You wanted the gold. How old are you? How old is Novak? Maybe you have a few more years.

But it meant so much to him to be able to want to compete and want to win.

That's what's great about the sport of tennis in both the Olympics and Paras, that the athletes want to compete at the highest stage. So in many ways we're kind of transitioning, right?

So we were here in Paris, and now we're transitioning to Los Angeles. Los Angeles will be where the Olympics are, and we're very fortunate that we work with the USTA. Where tennis will be held is at the Carson facility in California, which is the USTA's Western High-Performance Training Center.

So again, we'll be in good hands working with one of our strongest federations, like the FFT, to be able to promote the sport. So we're really excited about that.

The tennis event, just to remind everyone, will be the 19th through the 28th of July, and the wheelchair event will take place between the 18th and the 16th. So a month later. Or 18th and the 26th, rather.

In order to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics, you have to play at least two times in a four-year cycle representing your nation in Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, and the World Cups when it comes to the Paras as well.

Just a couple of things, and then I promise I'll stop. So what's new for 2028? We will start the Olympics with a mixed doubles event. It will be the first two days of the event will be the mixed doubles. The reason we're doing that is we want the top players to be able to play. Sometimes they try to play singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. What happens, as it comes towards the end, they're focusing perhaps on singles if they're doing well.

This enables everybody to compete in the beginning. It's a great way to kick it off. We're excited about that. It will be a draw of 16, and there will be two matches per day. There will be a match tiebreak in the third, so we're trying to keep the matches to a reasonable time so the athletes can play and prepare. They will have been coming from Wimbledon, so they will have been playing on grass. This gives them a way to get used to the hard court.

You know, both the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics wheelchair tennis events were spectacular. We see this continuing. We're very proud as a sport to be one of the few sports, if not the only sport -- and I'd like to say the pinnacle of any sport -- that really has the para and the athletes that play professionally on the same stages in all the events around the world.

So thank you very much for your time. Also, I'd like to say that what a fantastic job Paris 2024, the organizing committee, the sports director for tennis, what a fantastic job they did here. We're hoping that we can have that same success and that same high level in L.A. in 2028. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

CHRIS SMITH: Thanks, Dave. Good morning, everyone. We'll open the floor to any questions now around the Wheelchair 50th Anniversary or Olympics and Paralympics.

Q. Dave, are you able to just expand on the importance of the Olympics and Para Games in relation to tennis? It was interesting in the room behind us a few days ago that Alexander Zverev made a clear comment that he would never swap his gold medal for any major. So the development of the sport through the Olympics and the growth in its importance to the actual overall sport of tennis.

DAVID HAGGERTY: Thank you, Craig.

One of the benefits of being in the Olympics is that we are able to get some funding, which helps us develop the game around the world. So we use that money in underdeveloped, under-resourced countries to be able to help players develop, to be able to put programs to have more juniors, increase participation, which is really important.

Zverev's comments, I saw as well, and it was very emotional for me even to see how he values that Olympic gold medal. I remember when he received it and how much it meant to him.

I think the Olympics is a chance for tennis players who play -- you know, it's a tough life, right? You're by yourself. You're traveling. You're competing against many people year in and year out, and a team event and the Olympics is really a team event, because you're with your country, you're with other sports, and I think some of the best experiences that the tennis players have had in the Olympics is the opening ceremony, marching with your fellow athletes from your country. You might have a basketball player who is an idol of you from the same country, and you get to meet them and march along.

So I think it's a completely different experience. You live in the Athletes Village. You see athletes from all different nations. It's just a magnificent experience that is unlike any other tennis event that we would have. So I think it means a lot to the athletes.

Q. My question is about the wheelchair tennis and the 50 years. What was the rationale behind you getting tennis to integrate with the wheelchair sports, which is only happening now, like you said, some countries still function, and what's the development been all 50 years that you see as a sign of progress and full integration?

DAVID HAGGERTY: Yeah, so each country is different, because if we look at it from kind of the mother ship with the IOC and the IPC, you have two different organizations. Therefore, in some countries, you have a National Olympic Committee, a National Paralympic Committee.

As an IOC member, I also serve on my National Olympic Committee, which is the USOPC, where it's integrated in the United States, Olympic and Paralympic, one of about ten nations that have integrated. I highly recommend it. I think it makes sense.

By bringing wheelchair and tennis together, we were able to take advantage of the knowledge, the events, the tournaments, the circuit that we have on the tennis side and take those learnings and be able to do it on the wheelchair side.

Most of our nations, not all, but most of our nations work together with both wheelchair and tennis. Sometimes there could be a separate wheelchair federation, but they work with the tennis federation. I think a lot of it has been because of time. 50 years, we've had a chance to collaborate, and we're always stronger together than we are by ourselves.

I think that's really what we're trying to do and then use those facilities to be able to have high-quality, top-level wheelchair players competing as well.

Q. In '88, wheelchair tennis was a demonstration sport in Seoul, and four years later in Barcelona became official sport. The wheelchair tennis is following the tennis a little bit, and you were mentioned in '28 to have the mixed doubles for the able-bodied in the Olympics. Are there any plans in '32 to have mixed doubles in Brisbane for wheelchair tennis?

DAVID HAGGERTY: Well, certainly thank you for that, and a great suggestion, something that we have thought about. As we look at the programs, part of it comes down to working with the local organizing committee, so in this case with Brisbane '32, to put together the program and the IOC, because they sign off on the program.

It is something -- in fact, I think in the wheelchair we've been trying to increase the quota, the number of athletes that compete, so that we could have as a professional sport with 160 tournaments around the world. The more we can help those athletes be on the highest stages makes sense. So something we can look at.

We haven't made any decisions yet, but certainly a good suggestion to, again, showcase, you know, the wheelchair tennis in a mixed doubles way. Thank you.

CHRIS SMITH: I'll just ask the final question in English.

Dave, could you elaborate a little bit on the rationale for putting mixed doubles on Day 1 and Day 2?

DAVID HAGGERTY: Yeah, I think the main reason, knowing that we're transitioning surfaces from grass court to hard court and knowing that the athletes want to get as much practice when they transition on time as they can, and the mixed doubles event seemed to be a superb opportunity to allow the top players to compete in three disciplines.

They always like to be in mixed doubles, doubles, and singles, but this would be a way to manage their time better where, over a two-day period, if you win, you play two matches one day, two matches the next day, and you're completed. So you're getting great practice, but you're also competing for a medal. You're competing for a gold medal.

We think the player field will be very strong because of that. We think the top players, both men and women, will be competing in the mixed doubles. It's a great way to showcase mixed doubles, because we, as recreational players, we play more doubles than we do singles. Oftentimes we're playing mixed doubles, not just doubles. So we think it will appeal to a broader audience.

From a broadcast perspective, we tend to have our medal events at the end of the Olympic period, and there are other sports that are having their medal ceremonies at the same time. This way we're in the first couple of days of the Olympics when there are fewer medal sports, you know, fewer medal rounds. So we're really able to showcase it from a broadcast as well as from, you know, people in stadium.

Q. Just to clarify about L.A., the schedule, the first two days only mixed doubles. From third day you will start men's and women's singles and doubles?

DAVID HAGGERTY: Day 1 will be mixed doubles only. Day 2 will be mixed doubles medal matches and men's and women's singles first round.

EMMANUEL BOUSCASSE: Questions in French.

No questions in French. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, David. Have a good day, everyone.