MY ACCOUNT
A female climate change activist chained herself to the net on Court Philippe-Chatrier during the French Open semi-final between Marin Cilic and Casper Ruud.
The woman, who identified herself online as a 22-year-old named Alizee, came from the stands during the third set.
She wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan “We have 1028 days left”.
The shirt also carried the web address of the Derniere Renovation organisation, which is aligned to similar groups worldwide.
That website portrayed the woman on its front page, with the headline: “A citizen disrupts the semi-final of Roland Garros.”
That was confirmation it was a pre-planned exercise, with the woman quoted as saying: “We are in 2022 and it is time to look at the reality in the face, the world to which politicians are sending us is a world to which Roland Garros will not be able to exist.
“Today, I went onto the court because I can’t take the risk any more of not doing anything in the face of the climate emergency.”
The group’s website urged the French government to take action, saying it had sent it an ultimatum, declaring citizens had “entered into civil resistance”.
“France has been condemned by its own courts for climate inaction. The future of this country is literally destroyed. To waste time is to perish,” the group added.
The incident was an embarrassment to French Open organisers, with security inside the main show court unable to prevent the woman marching out onto the court and locking herself to the net.
Play was interrupted with the players briefly taken off court, before the woman was removed from the court by four security men and the match resumed.
