French Open

The French Open is currently the only Grand Slam tournament held on clay and is the culmination of the European spring clay court season. The finals are held in the Roland Garros stadium. The stadium’s name is quintessentially French. The tennis stadium, which was built to be a fitting venue for the exploits of France’s ‘Four Muskeeters’ of tennis of the 1920s- Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste-is named after a famous French aviator who was the first Frenchman to fly solo across the Mediterranean Sea!

Success in Paris has eluded many of the game’s greatest male players: Becker, Edberg, McEnroe, Newcombe and Sampras to name a few.  Roger Federer only claimed one French titlle. Novak Djokovic claimed his third title in 2023 to appropriately win a record 23rd Grand Slam title for men in the Open Era.  The feats of Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros are unlikely to be emulated given Nadal's winning of an unprecedented fourteen titles. The greats of the women’s game compete for the Suzanne Lenglen trophy, named after France’s greatest ever female player. In 2019, Ash Barty became the first Australian to win the Women’s title since Margaret Court in 1973. The last male Australian champion was Rod Laver in his Grand Slam year of 1969 when he beat another Australian, Ken Rosewall to win the tournament. They are the last Australian men to play in a French final.