French Open: Alcohol banned in stands after fan spits chewing gum at David Goffin

Alcohol has been banned in the stands at Roland Garros by French Open bosses after a fan spat chewing gum at David Goffin.

The Belgian tennis player had just beaten Frenchman Giovanni Mphetshi Perricard - before hitting out at a particularly boisterous crowd, claiming one fan had spat gum at him.

As a result, fans have been told they will no longer be able to drink at their seat.

Tournament boss Amelie Mauresmo said that security measures have been tightened and umpires instructed to be stricter with the crowd during matches.

“Alcohol was until now authorised in the stands. Now it’s over,” said Mauresmo.

“The umpires are really going to be even more strict to further respect to the players and respect the game.

“This is something that we’re not going to tolerate, to overstep these two things. That’s for sure. So umpires have quite an important role in this matter.

“And definitely in terms of security, we’re going to try to see which people is maybe making [trouble], because I think it’s a few individuals at some point that are overstepping.”

Mauresmo said that the person who spat gum at Goffin had not been identified and that no spectators had been ejected from the tournament so far.

She added: “We’ve tried to gather yesterday information on what happened and how we can do the things so these kind of new rules are from this morning. So we’ll see how it goes.”

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