21YO Pro’s Coach Demands Compensation From French Open After Practice Court Injury Forces Unfortunate Withdrawal

Alexander Blockx had every reason to feel good about his Roland Garros campaign. The 21-year-old Belgian had defeated Coleman Wong in straight sets in the first round. The tournament had seeded him to face Alex de Minaur in the second round. He brought with him the form of the best clay season in his young career. But that was until a strand of tarpaulin attached to the rear of a practice court ruined it all. 

Blockx was hitting with Joao Fonseca at the Paris Jean-Bouin club, a few minutes from the Roland Garros complex, on Tuesday, when he sprained his ankle near the end of the session. He had been running back for a shot when the tarpaulin, which was spread out on the ground behind a narrow practice court, caught his foot. He heard a snap, stopped right away, and by the next morning was out of his second-round clash with the eighth seed, giving de Minaur a walkover into the third round. 

Blockx posted about it on Instagram, making his frustration clear. “Unfortunately during today’s practice I heard a snap in my ankle while I sprained it, which is why I had to withdraw from tomorrow’s match that I was really looking forward to. A lot of frustration but we move on.” 

In the original post, he was making a sarcastic reference to the court’s covers and referring to them as “really necessary”, but cut it out before reposting. De Minaur commented on the post almost immediately. “So sorry to hear mate. Wishing a very speedy recovery,” the Australian wrote.

In public, Blockx was careful with the words he used, but his coach, Ruben Bemelmans, was not. In a video interview on Wednesday, the former world No. 84 and Belgian Davis Cup stalwart said the team would investigate possible compensation from the French Tennis Federation.

“For sure, there’s no signs saying ‘careful about covers in the back,’” he said. “Are the covers necessary in Jean-Bouin? I don’t think so. There should be a solution for that because the courts are very narrow. There’s not much space behind the courts. So in my opinion, it shouldn’t be there, or there should be another solution other than putting them on the ground.”

Bemelmans also made the point that the speed of the modern game has changed what players need from a practice court. “The speed of the game is getting so quick, and the courts there are very, very narrow. Back in the day, you could defend your line and put yourself on the baseline and attack the ball there, but now it’s become so physical, and you need to play from the back and then try to gain your position after a few shots.” 

He said he raised his concerns directly with the officials of the tournament. Meanwhile, Romain Rosenberg, the executive director of the PTPA, said via text message that a doubles coach had raised similar safety concerns about the Jean-Bouin courts with him this week, adding that players have been complaining about the safety of those courts for some time now. 

The French Tennis Federation has not responded to requests for a comment at the time of publication.

For Blockx, who has been among the most intriguing storylines on the men’s tour this season, it’s especially cruel to be injured at this stage. For the first time in his career, Blockx advanced to his first ATP Masters 1000 fourth round in April at Monte Carlo and then backed it up by adding his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semifinal in Madrid. He went 12-5 in the lead-up to the tournament, establishing himself as one of the most dangerous unseeded players at Roland Garros. A second-round match against de Minaur, winnable for the Australian against a player of Blockx’s clay court form, would have been the biggest test of the Belgian’s career to date. More importantly, this incident presents uncomfortable precedents that demand our attention.

This is not the first time Roland Garros tarpaulin has brought a Belgian down

In 2017, David Goffin, then ranked No. 12 in the world and one of Belgium’s greatest players, twisted his ankle on a tarpaulin at the back of a court at Roland Garros during a match against Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos. He had to retire and spent more than six weeks on the sidelines. Goffin was Bemelmans’ former Davis Cup teammate. 

The coach, who is now demanding answers in 2026, watched his compatriot suffer the same injury, on the same type of court cover, at the same tournament, nine years ago. The worst part of all of this is that nothing has changed in all the years in between. 

Cases of players receiving compensation for injuries sustained at a tournament are extremely rare, but they do exist. The USTA was responsible for 75% of Eugenie Bouchard’s damages in 2018, providing the most prominent example. She had slipped on a cleaning substance on the floor at the 2015 US Open, suffering a concussion that forced her to withdraw from the tournament and subsequent events. That case set a precedent that Bemelmans and the Blockx team will almost certainly be looking at as they consider their options.

The overall safety issue raised by Bemelmans and the PTPA is more important than Blockx’s case. If, as Rosenberg suggests, players have been voicing concerns about the safety of the Jean-Bouin practice courts for a while now, and the same tarpaulin problem that affected Goffin in 2017 is still present in 2026, then it’s not a freak accident; it’s a systemic issue. A piece of ground covering that should not have been there in the first place has become the reason the 21-year-old, who’s ranked No. 37 in the world in his career, is out of a Grand Slam. In any legal approach Blockx’s team takes, it’s an uphill battle for the French Tennis Federation.