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A visit to Roland Garros A few years ago, three of us stood outside of the entrance to Roland Garros –home of the French Tennis Open. Ticket holders were passing through the gate aswe waited anxiously, hoping that someone would have tickets to sell. We entered finally, and I still remember how exciting it was to just get in. Iremember the names of my lucky counterparts; but I no longer remember who theplayers were that day. Of course, buying tickets like that is "caveat emptor". If that ever happens to you, now you can go to the Roland Garros multi-mediamuseum and jiggle your memory. However, if you are trying to remember whenRoland Garros won the French Open, you might be surprised to learn that he wasnot a tennis player. The Roland Garros stadium grounds (2 avenue Gordon Bennett 75016) are openfree of charge to the public all year round* – just walk through the Porte desMousquetaires at 2, avenue Gordon-Bennett. Without a guide you can visit thePhilippe Chatrier center court and walk around the park, visit the boutique, inquireabout tickets, eat at the restaurant or your children can play tennis at RolandGarros. This is not a museum of tennis rackets; this is a museum that is alive with voicesfrom the past. In front of display cases with objects and plasma screens areheadphones. You listen to vignettes in French with English subtitles about tennis(later you can sit and watch them again with English commentary). Everything is bilingual (French/English) Take an English guided visit at 11 a.m. -make a reservation. The first day that I went, no one had signed up for the 2:30 p.m. tour (very quiettime during the winter) Tenniseum, a staff member took me on a mini-tour of themuseum After 2 ! hours my knowledge intake was hitting overload! … There is somuch here. Once inside the park, a small Normandy-style building, once the gardener’scottage and then an office, is on the left. This is your entry into the tennis museum(Tenniseum). The permanent museum (that opened in 2003) has a surface of 2,200m" belowground (about 23,000 sq.ft.) that is accessible by either stairs or the elevator. The chronicled history of tennis at the temporary exhibit will appeal to those wholike art and film history – Warhol, Arroyo, Cocteau and Lartigue. In general, costumes, illustrations, mode de vie will appeal to cultural historylovers. For those who like to sit and use the computer for historical facts, voilà! You cansurf through 200 hours of programming from the collections, films of matches,career records and results; take a quiz or a guided tour, look at old posters, followthe history of the game and its function through history. The Roland Garros stadium has a beautiful restaurant in an Anglo-Normand stylebuilding. The restaurant was once a tennis player’s dressing room and its outdoorterrace was once a tennis court. For all ticket sales, dates, and playing schedules visit Roland Garros website

Stade Roland Garros Maison du Tennis 2 avenue Gordon-Bennett 75016 Paris FRANCE Attention: Service Billeterie.

Practical informationEntrance is free for picnics and walking around and visiting the grounds of RolandGarros in general.

Wimbledon 365 kmsFlushing Meadows 5830kmsMelbourne Park 16950 kms

Tenniseum entrance

Display with 1550 treaty

Display of Suzanne Lenglen

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Enter through Porte des Mousquetaires Open Tuesday through Sunday (closed Monday, December 25, January 1, butopen Easter Monday) 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.www.fft.fr or www.rolandgarros.com How to get there:Line 9: Mairie de Montreuil - Pont de Sèvres (Michel-Ange Auteuil, Michel-AngeMolitor or Porte de Saint Cloud stations)Line 10: Austerlitz Boulogne station (porte d'Auteuil station) Bus line 22 : Opéra -Porte de Saint Cloud (get off at the terminus)Line 22: Opéra - Porte de Saint Cloud (get off at Michel Ange Auteuil)Line 32: Gare de l'Est - Porte d'Auteuil (get off at the terminus)Line 52: Opéra - Pont de Saint Cloud (get off at Porte d'Auteuil ou la Tourelle)Line 62: Cours de Vincennes - Porte de Saint Cloud (get off at the terminus)Line 72: Hôtel de Ville - Pont de Saint Cloud (get off at la Tourelle)Line 123: Porte d'Auteuil - Mairie d'Issy (get off at Roland-Garros)Line 241: Suresnes - Porte d'Auteuil (get off at Suzanne-Lenglen)PC1: Circle bus line (get off at Porte d'Auteuil, Porte Molitor or Porte de SaintCloud) A special Roland Garros taxi stand is available during the tournament at thecorner of Robert Schuman avenue and Auteuil boulevard. You can also page ataxi from the Suzanne Lenglen North gate between 15.00 and 19.00. My personal tip:I took Line 10 to the Porte d’Auteuil station - exit at Bvd. Murat (less than a 10 minute walk) - follow signs for “Parc des Princes and Roland Garros” - at street level while facing bus stop #32, turn right - walk toward the Parc des Poètes and the little brown house - cross the street and stay to the right of the little brown house - continue on the sidewalk Avenue de la Porte d’Auteuil, next to thehighway, the gardens will stay on your left - turn left on avenue Gordon Bennett, the first street after the garden gates - take your first right into the Roland Garros park. If it is raining,Bus 123 at street level of the metro will take you two stops to “Stade RolandGarros”. The bus runs seven days a week, including Sundays and holidays.Get off of the bus, walk back to the corner of avenue Gordon Bennett, and turnleft, keeping “the Village” on your left. If you want to return to the Porte d'Auteuil metro through the park,Walk through the botanical gardens (it may cost 1 euro).There is a passage way from the gardens into Parc des Poètes close to thehighway.

HistoryRoland Garros was a French aviator and war hero (b.1888 d. 1918). He made thefirst successful crossing of the Mediterranean in 1913 and perfected the skill ofshooting through the spinning airplane prop (le procédé de tir à travers l’hélice);he was killed in aerial combat. In 1927, the four Musketeers (Borotra, Brugnon, Cochet and Lacoste – lesMousquetaires) won the Davis Cup; thus, France had to sponsor the nexttournament for 1928 and needed a stadium. “The Stade Français and the Racing Club of France had a concession from theCity of Paris at Porte d’Auteuil. They proposed to give it to the French LawnTennis Federation. In exchange the future stadium had to be called after aprominent member of one of the two clubs. Garros, a rugby fan, was also a greatwar hero”…quote from one of the cubicle presentations. But tennis goes back further than this stadium and the French Open. In one one of the 20 wooden, comfortable cubicles scattered throughout the mainroom, you can listen to a passage of the 1550 tennis treaty read in Latin and thentranslated to English. The rules sound poetic and philosophical as if turning the game into an art form. In fact, Suzanne Lenglen, tennis champion between 1920 and 1926 (when shewent professional), saw the movements of the game as dance, as the museumfilms show, which put her in a category with Isadora Duncan and other moderndancers of that era.

Leather glove andtambourine used in the jeude paume(Leather glove andtambourin) (round woodenracquet)this was part of the 100years 100 stories exhibit Where did the racquetcome from? Real tennis firstappeared in France in the11th century. It was apopular game played in theopen air, in village squaresor streets. The ball was hitwith a bare hand or a glovefrom which took its name(jeu de paume in French or“the hand game”). It is likelythat the Italians, who werevery keen on the strength ofthe shot, developed it fromthe tambourin which wasused to hit the ball in avariant of real tennis.

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The beginnings of tennis are traced back to Scaïno, an Italian monk, who wrotedown the rules of jeu de paume (the ancestor of tennis – originally spelled“tennys”). When Scaïno wrote the Preier Traité de jeu de paume (the First Treaty on RealTennis) in 1550 the rules of the game were the same around the world, whether inPrague, Rome, Paris or London. This jeu de paume or real tennis was very popular among the masses who couldplay the game in their narrow, medieval streets with a net stretched between thetwo buildings. According to Mr. Piffaut it is the only sport where men and women have alwaysplayed by the same rules whether in singles or mixed doubles (a foursome) withno discrimination. He also said that the tennis is and was considered a violent game because of theforce used to hit the ball; it is comparable to a duel. However, in this duel, onedoes not try to hit the opponent with the ball, but rather attacks by strategicallyhitting the ball out of the range of the opponent. Time Capsule TriviaDuring the reign of Henry IV (b. 1553 d. 1610) 250 tennis courts dotted the city ofParis. It became the king of games because it was a game of kings. By the beginning of the 17th century about 114 courts were still used (the GalerieNationale du Jeu de Paume in the Tuileries Gardens is a former tennis court). But decline was eminent. Louis XIV (the Sun King - b.1638 d.1715) preferredbilliards to tennis. This grandson of Henry IV had problems playing tennis while wearing his largewig. It had to be covered with cloth or else the powder would fall out. By 1780 onlyten courts were left in Paris; the tennis game of French kings had lost favor. During Victorian era in England tennis, it was especially noted that during singlesor mixed doubles one could meet a future spouse on the tennis court. Aftershowing prowess and style during the game, one socialized over the alwayspresent tea – a method to see and be seen. And not to leave you wondering about my initial question...what do an egg andlove have in common? In the museum when you see the ostrich egg on display, this is the explanationthey give: “L’oeuf” or “love”The scoring system in tennis is identical to the system used in real tennis a fewcenturies earlier. In France, the expression “l’oeuf” (the egg) was used in realtennis instead of zero (the zero resembles an egg).The English-speaking countries took up this word phonetically. Today, if you are atWimbledon, you can hear the umpire say “love/fifteen” and not “zero/fifteen”.Love, from the French “l’oeuf”. Questions you might have:Who invented the clay court and why?Why do tennis scores increase in increments of 15?When did “open” tennis begin?Why was the stadium named after an aviator instead of a tennis player?Why did an elitist sport gain wide popularity during a period of socialism in the1920s?Why was the stadium built in 1928?How is a tennis ball put together?What does it look like under the clay surface? I will give away a couple of answers. Who invented the clay court and why?The British Renshaw brothers because the Mediterranean sun yellowed theirgrass and they couldn’t see the white lines. Why do tennis scores increase in increments of 15?One widely accepted hypothesis for the scoring numbers (0, 15, 30, 45) comesfrom 1579 and the jeu de paume (real tennis). The court was measured in royalfeet. The successful scorer advanced toward the net, 15 royal feet at a time andwon the serve. The player to reach the net first won the game. Why are tennis balls yellow nowadays?

Roland Garros

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Television. The little white ball couldn’t be seen especially when the clay turned itbrown. Tests were made and yellow was the most télégenique. The rest of the questions are answered at the Tenniseum. Have fun, you will loveit!

Les sucettes de DecauxPhilippe Starck-style historical markers are located around thepark (the same design you see around Paris). Below is a summary of the historical/factual markers on thegrounds. They are in French so I have translated them in caseyou are on a self-guided tour:

“Le pavillon du jardinière”The gardener’s cottageAt the end of the 60s, this English-Normandy styled cottage served as the office ofPierre Darmon, director of the Roland Garros tournament. At one time, itfunctioned as the caretaker’s home. The charm of the cottage was maintained for the entry to the Roland GarrosTenniseum, that Christian Bîmes, president of the FFT, inaugurated on May 25,2003. This 2,200m" underground multi-media museum assembles, preserves andpresents different elements constitute the memory of tennis in France. Themuseum and its library are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 until 18.00. Le Roland GarrosDuring its 75 years of existence, this English-Normandy style building haschanged its function numerous times. In 1928, it was the dressing room for the four Musketeers (Mousequetaires).During the 60s, it was the gathering place for the first patrons of “the Friends ofRoland Garros”. Later it was developed into three distinct rooms: the FFT office, bedrooms andlodging facilities for French tennis hopefuls (among them Yannick Noah) andresidences for stadium personnel. After a renovation it became the federal pavilion. The tennis court situated at thefoot of the stairs was replaced by a garden and is now used to welcome guests ofthe FFT during the tournament. Today, it is high end restaurant “le Roland Garros” designed by Miguel CancioMartins. The chef is Stéphane Thoreton. Court Nº 1Responding the growing success of the tournament, the original central courtnumber 1 was replaced by this central “bis”, erected and built by the MareyInstitute. Its circular form and seating capacity of 3,790 seats brought the public closer tothe players. The first match within its walls took place at the French Internationals1980. The name of the winners of the Men’s and Women’s singles since 1891 areengraved on pedestals around the top outside edges of the court.Despite the new court, the memory of Étienne-Jules Marey, the inventor ofchronophotographie in 1872 (a procedure that analyzes the movement ofsuccessive photographs which lead to cinematography) and the father of scientificcinema. A plaque to this famous researcher that also contains his ashes has beenplaced between Court Nº1 and the Village. Court Philippe-ChatrierThe central court was constructed in 1928 to accommodate the Challenge Roundof the Davis between France and the United States. Designed by the architectLouis Faure-Dujarric, it seats 10,000. Initially, two rows of boxes were on concrete and the terraces were in wood.Gradually, the terraces were replaced by galleries of cement, increasing thecourt’s capacity to 13,000 places. In 1976, the FFT installed its offices under the galleries. Between 1979 and 2000,central court was affected by renovations to A, B, C and D galleries and now has acapacity of 15,094 places.Only the B gallery has kept its original appearance. The central court name was changed to Philippe-Chatrier officially in time for the

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Internationaux de France 2000. (Chatrier was president of the International TennisFederation from 1977 to 1990; he died in 2000.)

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