French Open

The French Open (French: Internationaux de France de Tennis), also called Roland-Garros, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis championship tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments, the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The French Open is the conclusion of the spring clay court season. Between the seven rounds needed for a championship, the slow-playing surface and the best-of-five-set men’s singles matches, the event is widely considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.

Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared with grass courts or hard courts. For this reason, clay courts take away some of the advantages of big servers and serve-and-volleyers, which makes it hard for these types of players to dominate on the surface. For example, Pete Sampras, known for his huge serve and who won 14 Grand Slam titles, never won the French Open – his best result was reaching the semi-finals in 1996.

On the other hand, players whose games are more suited to slower surfaces, such as Rafael Nadal, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Justine Henin and Chris Evert, have found great success at this tournament.

At the French Open there are “ramasseurs de balles” which in English translates literally as “gatherers of balls”. They are aged between 12 and 16 years old, and dress in matching shirts and shorts. The 250 ball boys and ball girls are chosen to take part in the French Open by an application and selection process. Upon selection the ball boys and ball girls participate in preparatory training in the weeks leading up to the French Open to ensure that they are prepared for the day they set foot on the tennis court in front of a global audience.