British Tennis - Lawn Tennis Association

The World Clay Court Championships, as the tournament was known in the early years, was a closed event open only to French players up until 1924.

However, due to the domination in the 1920’s of the legendary French Musketeers, Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste, the French Tennis Federation realised they needed to make it into a global event.

In 1925, the French Internationals was born and played at either Club de France or Stade Francais, the two venues taking it in turns to play host.

In 1927, France were crowned Davis Cup champions for the first time and subsequently needed a venue to host the final the following year. It was decided that a new stadium would be built and Stade Francais offered to sell a plot of land for this purpose.

The only condition in the contract was that the new venue would be named after a former member of Stade Francais. The member, an aviator famous for being the first person to fly across the Mediterranean in 1913, was called Roland Garros.

After the war years, Roland Garros, as the tournament became commonly known, was the first Grand Slam to join the ‘Open era’ in 1968.