French Open Tennis

French Open Tennis

May-June

Officially known as the French Championships, the French Open is one of the four major tournaments that make up the Grand Slam of tennis. (The others are the Australian Open, the United States Open, and Wimbledon.) The French National Championship, played at the Stade Roland Garros in Auteil, France, on red-clay courts, was instituted in 1891 but wasn't opened to players from other nations until 1925. It became an open (to both amateurs and professionals) in 1968.
In 1974, Bjorn Borg of Sweden, 18 years old, became the youngest French Open winner. He went on to become a six-time winner—1974, 1975, 1978-81—putting him ahead of the former champion, Henri Cochet, the winner in 1926, 1928, 1930, and 1932. In the women's division, the players who have won the most titles since 1925 have been American Chris Evert Lloyd (seven wins: 1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, and 1986) and Australian Margaret Smith Court (five wins: 1962, 1964, 1969, 1970, and 1973). In 1990, 16-year-old Monica Seles of Yugoslavia took the youngest-champion honors from Borg when she beat German Steffi Graf. But Graf went on to win five times (1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, and 1996).

CONTACTS:
Federation Francaise de Tennis
Stade Roland Garros, 2 Ave., Gordon Bennett
Paris, 75016 France
33-1-4743-4800; fax: 33-1-4743-0494
www.fft.fr