The French Open
It is pretty unimaginable that people will not know of the French Open tennis championship, because it is a competition which is an annual topic of conversation. In French the name of the competition is ‘Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros’ or ‘Tournoi de Roland Garros’. This tournament, which lasts for roughly a fortnight is held in Paris at the Roland Garros Stadium, from which it took its name.
The French Open is one of the most publicised and broadcast sports events in the entire world of sport and many VIPs attend it. The attendees are fanatics who wait with baited breath on every stroke, especially when there is a tight battle between the two players, doing their best to win. Even TV viewers actually get a feeling of being there live.
The French Open tennis championship comes in second on the annual schedule of the Grand Slam tournaments and its history goes back to the year of 1891 when it became an international competition. At that time it was called the ‘International Championship of Tennis of France’ or ‘Championat de France International de Tennis’ in French.
Initially, only players that were registered or licensed in France were allowed to participate in this competition, but things took a different turn in 1925, when the French open tennis tournament finally was accessible to foreign players. Until 1912, the court the players used was made of crushed red brick dust. Actually the crushed brick was formed into a sort of red clay that was spread over the ground, which, until then, would have been a grass lawn.
The public’s enthusiasm for the French Open tennis tournament held at the Roland Garros stadium, goes back to a competition fought between the Philadelphia Four (Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon) who won the Davis Cup in 1927. It was the trigger of the desire in the French to defend their cup in future competitions. This new tournament was meant to return home the cup and was held at a stadium named after the World War I ace Roland Garros. The name has stuck since then.
The term ‘open’ became has been used since 1968, when the tournament allowed both amateurs and professionals alike who wanted to test their skills at tennis. Since then the French Open tennis tournament has also brought some novelties in terms of prizes.
Beside the regular winners’ prizes, they also award a ‘Prix Orange’ for the most correct and press friendly player, a ‘Prix Citron’ for the player with the strongest personality and a ‘Prix Burgeon’ for the one that turns out to be the revelation of the tennis year.