PARIS - With only one week separating the end of one and the start of the other, the Tour de France and the French Open were shaping up as a double bill of sports entertainment, with masked but nevertheless present crowds, that would bear out President Emmanuel Macron's arguments that the country can live with the coronavirus.
The virus, however, had different ideas.
Whereas cycling's three-week spotlight event reached Paris last Sunday having pulled off the coup of getting through the country's worsening epidemic without any positives tests for COVID-19 among its 176 riders, the French Open isn't proving so lucky with its timing.
Play is still scheduled to start Sunday, but as infections soar across France, organizers' plans to have thousands of spectators there each day to cheer for Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and others have been drastically scaled back to allow just 1,000 daily visitors.
"Not the ideal situation. Nobody likes to play with these conditions, no?" Nadal, the record-setting 12-time French Open champion said Friday about having so few spectators at Roland Garros. "Everybody wants to come back to the normal situation. But before that, we need to fix the most important thing, and that is the worldwide health that today is still under big problems."
Last Sunday, tournament director Guy Forget had appeared in an upbeat mood on French TV with Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme, who tested positive himself during the race and hadn't been sure it would get to Paris. Forget congratulated Prudhomme - who appeared exhausted - on the race that drew smaller but still sizable and enthusiastic crowds. Forget also looked forward to welcoming 5,000 spectators per day at Roland Garros.
Although postponed from their usual slots - late May and early June for the French Open and July for the Tour de France - organizers of both events decided not to cancel, unlike many others as the virus spread across the globe.
"Thanks to the Tour, thanks to tennis, sports are resuming again," Forget said Sunday. "We want to experience beautiful emotions. If it's 5,000 spectators, that's better than nothing. We see the glass half full."
Less so now. On Thursday, hours after the tennis tournament carried out a socially distanced electronic draw with no players present, France's prime minister announced that new attendance limits introduced this week in Paris and other cities would also apply at Roland Garros.
His office confirmed Friday that only 1,000 spectators will be allowed each day. Three weeks ago, the tournament had still been planning for 11,500, divided between its Philippe Chatrier, Suzanne Lenglen and Simonne Mathieu arenas. That was then cut last week to 5,000 and now to 1,000.
Tickets will be refunded "with a bit of heartache because we are convinced that we would have been able to welcome the 5,000 people in question who we had been counting on," Forget said Friday on Franceinfo radio.
"It's a bit of a tough blow," he said. "Unfortunately, that is the way it is."
France reported more than 16,000 new cases on Thursday alone, a new daily high, in part because of ramped-up testing. New influxes of sick patients are putting mounting pressure on intensive care units at hospitals.
When the Tour set off in late August, the daily number of new cases had yet to cross the 10,000 mark, and the government wasn't facing the same intense criticism it's dealing with now, particularly from the southern city of Marseille. Its inhabitants, facing even stricter limits than other cities, likely would have been infuriated had the French Open been allowed to disregard the 1,000-people limit enforced this week in Paris and elsewhere.
The lucky few remaining spectators will include 750 ticket holders, drawn by lottery, with the rest either sponsors' guests or VIPs.
French tennis player Gael Monfils called the reduced number of fans "sad news."
Tournament organizers have also been drawn into a spat over their virus testing regime with the coach of a virus-excluded player.
Petar Popovic said he is filing a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the withdrawal of Damir Dzumhur, a former top-30 player from Bosnia now ranked 114th. They traveled to Paris for this week's qualifying tournament, but Dzumhur, despite testing negative, wasn't included in the draw because Popovic failed his test and they had shared a hotel room.
Popovic said health arrangements meant to protect players were far from hermetic at the hotel near the Eiffel Tower where organizers housed them last week.
"There were Japanese air hostesses, even tourists from Japan and elsewhere," Popovic told The Associated Press. "There were hotel guests unconnected with the tournament, who therefore aren't tested, sharing the gym with us."
Rather than make their own arrangements, players are being grouped in two hotels on reserved floors, with some employees tested, too. Players are taken from the hotel to Roland Garros by vehicles that are disinfected after each trip. French Open officials plan to test players every five days.
So far, organizers have announced the virus-caused withdrawals of six players from qualifying - three who tested positive and three who they said were in close contact with a coach who tested positive. Organizers did not announce their names.
On Friday, former top-10 player Fernando Verdasco said he has been dropped from the bracket because of what he believes is a false positive result.
The 36-year-old Spaniard had played in 67 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments until missing this year's U.S. Open. He was a semifinalist at the 2009 Australian Open and is currently ranked 58th.
Verdasco wrote Friday on Twitter that he had COVID-19 in August and did not have symptoms. He said that was followed by negative results until he tested positive this week.
He said he asked for another test, but French Open organizers refused. He said he took other unofficial tests on his own that came up negative.
Wrote Verdasco: "It makes me sad and feeling absolutely frustrated."