French Open organisers announce alcohol ban in crackdown on raucous behaviour... after David Goffin accused 'hooligan fans' of spitting at him

The French Open have banned fans from drinking alcohol on court in a bid to crack down on increasingly raucous behaviour this year.

It becomes the only one of the four Grand Slams to not allow alcohol in the stands.

Belgian David Goffin said a spectator spat his chewing gum at him during his win against French player Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and said: ‘It’s becoming like a football match.’

And on Thursday tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said that after an emergency meeting, Roland Garros have decided to ban fans from bringing alcohol on to the court, as one of a number of measures to curb the bad behaviour.

‘So a few things have been put in place: first of all, the umpires are going to be even more strict to further respect to the players and respect the game. Overstepping those two things is something that we're not going to tolerate.

‘Alcohol was allowed until now in the stands – that’s over.

‘If you don't behave well or if throw things at the players, that's it, you go out. It’s very clear, the instructions are given and we will have no hesitation.

‘And in terms of security, we're going to see which people are overstepping - because I think it's a few individuals. These individuals, we try to calm them down or if they go too far, they go out.

‘We’re going to upgrade the security.’

‘We tried to gather information on what happened and so these are new rules from this morning. So we'll see how it goes.’

On the specific accusation that Goffin had been spat at, former world No1 Mauresmo said: ‘We are on it, for now we haven’t found them.’ Will they be banned from future events? ‘First we need to find them, then we’ll make a decision.’