The 2021 edition of the clay court Grand Slam gets underway in Paris on Sunday, just seven months after the end of the 2020 tournament, which was pushed back from May/June to September/October of last year.
This year's event is starting a week later than normal in an effort to capitalise on the French government's phased easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
According to the director general of the FTF, Amélie Oudaa-Castera: "Our little bet was a winner."
"Having to postpone for a week is really a winning choice," she added, "... tens of millions of euros saved."
In total, just over 5,000 spectators will be admitted at the Roland Garros site until 8 June.
That figure will go up to more than 13,000 a day later thanks to the government's decision to raise fan numbers to a 65 percent limit of actual capacity.
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"Had the tournament ended on 6 June (the original finishing date) and the following Wednesday the limits were raised, that would have been awful," said Oudaa-Castera.
The main setback for organisers this year is that nine of their scheduled 10 evening sessions -- an innovation for 2021 -- will be played behind closed doors.
A government curfew of 9pm will not be lifted until 9 June.
Oudaa-Castera admitted that the ideal scenario would have seen the 2021 event pushed back two weeks.
However, the FFT insist they were mindful of the negative impact of the unilateral decision last year to delay the French Open by four months.
"Basically, the decision was good last year but it created a debt towards the international community," added the FFT chief.
"This year, we had to take all the precautions and try to correct the terrible image that our federation had suffered by doing what was perceived as a well-played but selfish choice."
On top of twice moving their event dates to suit themselves, The @FFTennis continues their “we don’t give a ****” mentality by cutting the doubles prize fund by 23%. ✂️ (1/2)
— Jamie Murray (@jamie_murray) May 25, 2021
Not everyone is happy at the move
On Wednesday, former doubles world number one Jamie Murray strongly criticised organisers for cutting prize money and slammed the quality of the accomodation.
The 35-year-old Scot, the brother of former Wimbledon and US Open champion Andy Murray, is unhappy that prize money in doubles competitions has been slashed by 23 percent.
Murray, who has won seven men's and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, claims the FFT did not care about the players.
