The French Open (Roland Garros)

This year’s Roland Garros will definitely be worth watching due to the amazing players competing.

The home of the French Open is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the greatest off all clay court tennis championships and the second Grand Slam after the Australian Open and before Wimbledon and the US Open. It is also the last event of the spring clay court season. It is said to bee the most exhausting tournament for players and exciting for the fans of online sportsbooks in France. The men’s singles final being a five-set match without a tiebreak in the final set is definitely tough even for well-trained athletes.

The history of the greatest French Championship

In the early 80’s a national championship for members of French clubs was organized under the name of Championnat de France (French Championships). The women’s singles were first held in 1897 while the mixed doubles joined the event in 1902. The tournament has had a change of venue four times during its 27 years. However the World Hard Court Championship is often thought of as a previous version of the Roland Garros since it was an international competition. The tournament was held in Saint-Cloud at the Stade Francais from 1912 for two years and then for another three from 1920.

Text Box:
• The 2014 champion is Rafael Nadal
• It is the most famous clay court event
• From May 24th to June 7th

In 1925 the French Championship has stepped its game up with opening their gates to all international amateurs. The event moved to the previous home of the World Hardcourt Championship for two years. The great success has helped the tournament to move to Paris, and then finally the Roland-Garros stadium was built in 1928 giving a permanent home to the French Open. The stadium got its named after the World War I pilot Roland Garros, that being the only condition of French authorities who donated the property for a national tennis venue, gambling news reported.

The 2015 Garros

On clay court you can never be very sure about the chances. A relatively low seeded player who is good on the baseline can outplay the greatest ones – sometimes. As the famous bon mot goes, it is difficult to make predictions – especially for the future. Nevertheless, after winning what is considered to be the general rehearsal for Paris, the Rome International Championship, Novak Djokovic can arguably be regarded as the main favourite this year. Except that he also won last year’s Rome contest, but not Roland Garros. He lost in four sets to the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, in four sets, winning the first one but losing the following three in a row. The same two sportsmen had also played the final in Rome, but then it was Djokovic who won two sets to one.
This year, Nadal has had a dreadful season slopping back to the seventh place in the ITP ranking. In Rome he was beaten by Wawrynka, a dangerous Swiss who has the best backhand sideline in the world and has already beaten all leading players once or twice.

You never know with Rafa, but something must be wrong with him. Maybe his joints and ligaments just cannot cope with the furious load he puts on them while ‘ploughing up’ the court. Those unique stretches and twists that enable him to hit a winner from seemingly beaten positions, have perhaps been too much for his body. But his being so, why did he play in Madrid just before going to Rome and to Paris then. And in Madrid he got to the final where he was beaten in two straight sets by Andy Murray, who skipped the Rome contest because he wanted to be as fit as possible in Paris. And what about the greatest men in today’s tennis, Roger Federer ? He reached the final in Rome and went down to Djokovic there 6:4; 6:3. Most people would bet that one of the three of them will be the winner in Paris.

Among the women, who else, but Serena Williams, who towers high among all the rest. Except that she had to withdraw from the Rome championship because of an elbow injury. If she won’t be a hundred per cent fit, she might not put all the dynamite in her serve and forehand, in which case, the Rome winner, Maria Sharapova may repeat her triumph last year, when Serena had been eliminated by a relative newcomer, Garbine Muguruza . Like we said, anything can happen on clay!