French Open organizers have confirmed that Serbian Novak Djokovic is allowed to defend his title. Notably, Roland Garros prepares to stage what is expected to be the first Grand Slam without any coronavirus-related restrictions since the pandemic began two years ago.

France has lifted restrictions on almost all public spaces – except hospitals, nursing homes and public transport – on Monday, meaning the Roland Garros stadium should be operating at full capacity with Djokovic taking it to the red dirt courts.

“As things stand, nothing stands in the way of Djokovic taking part in the French Open,” tournament director Amelie Mauresmo told a news conference on Wednesday.

Djokovic was unable to defend his Australian Open title in January after being deported from the country in a furore after being initially admitted to the tournament despite not being vaccinated against coronavirus.

“There’s still a virus circulating and we have to be cautious. If things were to happen again and the government took new measures, we would not be excluded from these measures,” he explained.

Moretton was optimistic that the Roland Garros stadium would be full after the 2020 and 2021 editions were hit by COVID-19.

“We started selling tickets on March 8 and 500,000 of the 600,000 have already been sold,” Moretton told a news conference on Wednesday.

“Out of the 150,000 tickets for the night sessions, 100,000 have been sold.”