The French Open Story: Why Roland Garros Remains The Ultimate War Of Attrition In Tennis

In the venerated world of tennis Grand Slams, the French Open is a fundamentally different beast.

The Australian Open demands endurance in scorching heat. Wimbledon requires elegant prediction on manicured grass. The US Open is a chaotic battle on hard courts under stadium lights.

The French Open, on the other hand, is a war of attrition. It is a test of a tennis player’s lung capacity. It is the scraping sounds of synthetic soles sliding across ground-up brick dust, a sound that is unique to late May in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

Beyond the iconic terracotta hue of its courts, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year is steeped in its historical quirks and anomalies. Let’s dive into the world of the French Open, a Roland Garros story.

French Open or Roland Garros?

French Open and Roland Garros. Two terms that are used to refer to this tournament, often interchangeably, often in the same publication (like in this article). While both do indeed talk about the same competition, they are worlds apart and usually in conflict.

The English-speaking world calls the tournament “the French Open”. The “open” part comes from when Grand Slams were opened up to professional players in 1968.

The organisers at the French Tennis Federation, though, exclusively refer to the tournament as Roland Garros. Or, more precisely, Roland-Garros, as French grammar requires places named after a person to carry a hyphen.

Stade Roland-Garros is the name of the facility in southwestern Paris where the tournament is held, and it is the basis of the name that is used in the non-Anglophone parts of the world. The Federation has pursued media outlets for several years to use “Roland-Garros” when referring to the tournament, because, as spokesperson Nicolas Beaudelin said in 2019, “this is ... where the tournament is played.”

Then there is the other name – “Championnats Internationaux de France”. This is how the tournament was known for the majority of its existence, referring to the period after 1925 when it was opened up to players of all nationalities.

The French-language official name is emblazoned on the silver trophies awarded to the singles champions. It also features prominently on the green chalkboards showing the scores.

The Pilot Who Never Played

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this tournament is the fact that it is named after a person who never played tennis in his life. Roland Garros was a football and rugby enthusiast. But he was more famous as a pioneering pilot. He became the first person to fly non-stop over the Mediterranean Sea in 1913. He also fought for France in World War I, dying in combat just a month before the armistice.

So, how did his name end up on one of the most famous tennis stadiums in the world? In 1927, the French “Four Musketeers” – Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet, and Jacques Brugnon – won the Davis Cup in the United States. That presented a problem for France, which needed a new stadium to host the defence the next year.

The Stade Francais club agreed to cede three hectares of land near the Bois de Boulogne to the French Tennis Federation, but club president Emile Lesueur had one non-negotiable condition: the new stadium had to be named after his former classmate and friend Roland Garros.

The Terre Battue Battle

To understand what makes the French Open such a notoriously gruelling competition, one has to look at what lies below the players’ feet. The red clay courts are not made of solid clay; they are 80 centimetres of an intricate drainage system made of large stones, gravel, volcanic clinker, and white limestone.

At the very top is the terre battue, the iconic red layer, which is just two millimetres of finely crushed red brick dust. The main Philippe-Chatrier court has 1.5 tonnes of terre battue.

This layer is not just for aesthetic purposes; it also changes the physics of the match. The crushed brick increases friction, gripping the tennis ball upon impact. According to a study done by the ITF, tennis balls lose 43% of their speed on clay, compared to 30% on grass.

However, what the ball loses in speed, it gains in bounce. Clay surfaces lead to significantly higher bounce, aiding players who hit with extreme topspin. This is one of the reasons Rafael Nadal, famed for his explosive forehand, has a record 14 Roland-Garros titles.

Since the ball travels slower through the air after bouncing on clay, it is very difficult to hit an outright winner, resulting in 25-30% longer rallies in the French Open compared to Wimbledon.

The loose top layer also makes footwork useless, forcing players to slide and glide across the court, all while maintaining their balance. This results in a brutal physical toll on players. Players need patience, stamina, and most importantly, tactical awareness to win, rather than relying on powerful serves.

The Channel Slam

Because Roland-Garros and Wimbledon are polar opposites, they feed into one of the most elusive achievements in modern tennis: the Channel Slam. This is the informal term used to refer to the act of winning both tournaments in the same calendar year. The “channel” refers to the English Channel, which separates Paris and London.

For decades, the Channel Slam was the ultimate paradox. How does a player conquer the slowest, bounciest surface in the world, and then weeks later, conquer the fastest, lowest-bouncing surface in the world?

Rod Laver achieved this feat in 1969, followed by Margaret Court (1970), Evonne Goolagong (1971), Billie Jean King (1972), and Chris Evert (1974). Bjorn Borg won it three consecutive times between 1978 and 1980. Martina Navratilova won it twice in 1982 and 1984. Steffi Graf holds the all-time record with four Channel Slams in 1988, 1991, 1995, and 1996.

Since the turn of the century, only five more players have reached this milestone: Serena Williams (2002, 2015), Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010), Roger Federer (2009), Novak Djokovic (2021), and Carlos Alcaraz (2024).

The Legacy of the Red Dust

From its origins as an exclusive all-French Parisian country-club event, the French Open has grown into much more than a Grand Slam; it has become a trial by fire for tennis players. The best players in the world have seen their massive serves reduced to a dull thud here. Few, like Serena and Nadal, have etched their names in local folklore.

As the French Open 2026 draws near, top players from around the world – the Jannik Sinners, the Aryna Sabalenkas – will once again line up on the baseline at Stade Roland-Garros, looking to lift the beautiful bowl-shaped trophy and earn a share of the huge prize pool.