FFT to distribute one million Euros to performing nations

The French Tennis Federation (FFT) will reward nations, whose junior players will excel at this year's junior French Open, by distributing one million Euros for their training and development programme.

FFT will give points to the players on the basis of number of matches they win and accordingly rank the nations for the prize money, the new FFT President Bernard Guidicelly said.

"We are going to start with a new trophy named after Philippe-Chatrier awarding the nations to help their young player turn Pro. The Grand Slam nations have to be very careful about the economic model and help nations to involve and get the players in the international level," Guidicelli told reporters.

"It's kind of ranking based. At the end of the tournament, we will rank the nations based on the performance of the juniors. We will distribute one million Euros, half for boys and half for girls," he further explained.

It is often considered that the ATP Tour is heavily weighed in the favour of top-100 players since only they enter the bigger tournaments and take the major chunk of prize money.

Guidicelli admitted that such a scenario exists and that's why they have decided to increase the prize money of the players who make early exits.

"If you look at the qualifiers, I was analyzing two-third in men's draw players are all between 20-27. It's a reality, it is very difficult to be part of top-100 and that is why we have addressed the situation. Today, we have reduced the prize money gap from 1/94 to 1/60 to help young and lower ranked players helping them financially," he said.

The FFT President chose not to speak on the decision they made on denying Maria Sharapova a wild card entry into the Roald Garros.

"Today the decision has been made. I don't want to talk about it. It's history now," he said.

Guidicelli though made it very clear that Romanian legend Ilie Nastase is not welcome at the Roland Garros because of his bad-in-taste remarks on American legend Serena Williams unborn child.

"No," he said when asked if FFT would invite him.

"He can be in the stadium if he is invited by a sponsor or by a fan. For us it was a kind of message to send to him that it is not acceptable to us what he said on the court to British contingent," Guidicelli said further.

Nastase had also hurled verbal abuse at Great Britain's Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong and player Johanna Konta during the Fed Cup tie.

The former world number one and winner of two-time Slam winner had called Konta and Keothavong 'f***ing bitches', and the umpire a 'f***ing a******e'.

Nastase was later ejected from the Fed Cup venue and the ITF banned the Romanian Fed Cup captain following his unacceptable conduct.

He also already been denied entry to Wimbledon this year.

The FFT President also informed that they have plans in place for improvements at Roland Garros, keeping in mind Paris bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.

"It's (getting more seats) not a project but the work has already started.We have four years to achieve it. Next (target) is to get a retractable roof (for Phillip Chartier Court) which is amazing for the game and the stadium.

"We will host not only tennis but also boxing event. We are meeting the Olympic committee so that we have a simple roof to save the place for boxing arena," he said.

Guidicelli said ideas of an Asian Grand Slam can't be entertained.

"You know Grand Slams have a history. We can't today say, Asia can have a Grand Slam. There are only four and that's history. But I think we can have Asian countries promote and have events. Already Asia has some significant events."

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)