Alexander Blockx and his team are considering seeking compensation from the French Open after the Belgian injured his ankle whilst training on a practice court.
The world No.37 was due to take on Alex de Minaur in the second round but was forced to withdraw from the match after suffering an injury leading up to the clash. Conducting a hitting session with fellow player Joao Fonseca at the Paris Jean-Bouin club, Blockx sprained his ankle after tripping over the covers located at the back of the court.
Announcing his withdrawal on social media, the tennis star criticised the ‘really necessary’ covers at the back of a court in a statement that has since been modified to exclude this comment. No reason has been given as to why this was done.
“Unfortunately, during today’s practice I heard a snap in my ankle while I sprained it, which is why I had to withdraw from tomorrow’s match that I was really looking forward to,” he wrote in his edited statement on Instagram.
”A lot of frustration but we move on.”
Ruben Bemelmans, who coaches the 21-year-old, has confirmed they are considering seeking damages from the Grand Slam. During an interview with The Athletic, he also questioned the necessity for covers to be located on the ground at the back of the court.
“For sure, there’s no signs (saying) ‘careful about covers in the back,’” Bemelmans commented.
“Are the covers necessary in Jean-Bouin? I don’t think so. There should be a solution for that because the courts are very narrow. There’s not much space behind the courts. So in my opinion, it shouldn’t be there or there should be another solution other than putting them on the ground.”
Elaborating further, Bemelmans believes better solutions are needed to protect players on what he describes as ‘very narrow’ courts. Arguing that, due to the development of men’s tennis, more players are returning from further behind the baseline, and therefore, they need more room during practice to work on these positions.
“Back in the day, you could defend your line and put yourself on the baseline and attack the ball there, but now it’s become so physical and you need to play from the back and then try to gain your position after a few shots. But yeah, that’s unfortunately what happened to Alex.” He said.
Blockx has risen up the rankings by almost 60 places over the past two months. At the Madrid Open, he defeated three top 20 players to reach his first masters 1000 semi-final before losing to Zverev. He then reached the third round in Rome, where he was again beaten by Zverev.
It is unclear if the ankle injury will have any impact on Blockx’s plans for the grass swing.
