Le+stade+Roland-Garros


 * Stade de Roland Garros**

Le Stade de Roland Garros is located southwest Paris, France and is home of the French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament. The tournament is played every year in May and June and was named after the man Roland Garros. Garros was an French aviator and a fighter aircraft pilot from World War 1. On September 23, 1913, he had become the first man to fly over the Mediterranean. There has been redevelopment going on at the stadium since 1999. The stands in the center court were reconstructed and the capacity was reduced to 15,059 to make more room for the always increasing media crews.(-KC)

http://www.fft.fr/rolandgarros/default_en.asp?id=1575

When the stadium was first made it was only open to the domestic audience. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the stadium was open to the public. It was eventually open to the public because the other tournaments including Wimbledon were becoming open to the public so they had to follow the trends. The stadium was closed during the war in 1940-1945. When it was re-opened it was in the French open. Roland Garros was the first Grand Slam tournament to join in 1968. (Ian)

Le stade Roland-Garros is where the French Open is annually held in Paris. The courts are clay, which means there is more value on the groundstroke than in the other grand slam events. The courts were built in 1928 after the French national team beat the United States in the Davis Cup, and needed a large place to host their defending of the cup. Since then the tournament has been held there. Le stade Roland-Garros is in a section of Paris known as Porte d’Auteuil. In 1968 the tournament became the French Open when professional players were allowed to play. In 1999 the stadium was renovated. AL

(ES)