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Event
Information:
The
French Open, Les internationaux de
France de Roland-Garros or Tournoi
de Roland-Garros is a major tennis
tournament held over two weeks
between late May and early June in
Paris, France, at the Stade Roland
Garros. It is the premier clay court
tennis tournament in the world and
the second of the four annual Grand
Slam tournaments - the other three
are the Australian Open, US Open and
Wimbledon. Roland Garros is the only
Grand Slam still held on clay and
ends the spring clay court season.
It is
one of the most prestigious events
in tennis, and it has the widest
worldwide broadcasting and audience
of all regular events in this sport. Because of the slow
playing surface and the five-set
men's singles matches without a
tiebreak in the final set, the event
is widely considered to be the most
physically demanding tennis
tournament in the world. The
reigning current champions in
singles are Rafael Nadal for the men
and Francesca Schiavone for the
women at the 2010 French Open. Clay
courts slow down the ball and
produce a high bounce when compared
to grass courts or hard courts. For
this reason, clay courts take away
some of the advantages of big serves
and serve-and-volleyers, which makes
it hard for serve based players to
dominate on the surface. For
example, Pete Sampras, a player
known for his huge serve, never won
the French Open (nor even advanced
to the final) in his entire career.
Many players who have won multiple
Grand Slam events have never won the
French Open, including John McEnroe,
Venus Williams, Stefan Edberg, Boris
Becker, Martina Hingis, Lindsay
Davenport, and Maria Sharapova. Andy
Roddick, who holds the record for
the second fastest serve (249 km/hr)
in the history of professional
tennis, has never advanced past the
fourth round.
On the
other hand, players whose games are
more suited to slower surfaces, such
as Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Rafael
Nadal, and Mats Wilander, and on the
women's side, Justine Henin have
found great success at this
tournament. In the open era, the
only male players who have won both
the French Open and Wimbledon,
played on faster grass courts, are
Rod Laver, Jan Kodeš, Björn Borg,
Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and
Rafael Nadal.
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