2009 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

TOTAL TITLES LEADER
Smith-Court, 13 titles (5 singles, 4 doubles, 4 mixed doubles).

SINGLES TITLE LEADERS
Evert, 7 titles
Graf, 6 titles.

MOST CONSECUTIVE SINGLES TITLES
Henin, Wills-Moody, Sperling and Seles, 3

DOUBLES TITLES LEADERS
Navratilova, 7 titles.

SINGLES TITLES BY COUNTRY
USA: 27 titles.
Germany: 10 titles.

SINGLES MATCH WIN LEADER
Graf, 94 matches, 84 wins, 10 losses.

YOUNGEST CHAMPION
Seles (1990): 16 and 6 months.
Sanchez (1989): 17 and 5 months.
Graf (1987): 17 and 11 months.

OLDEST CHAMPION
Kormoczy (1958): 33.
Adamson-Landry (1948): 31 and 6 months.
Evert (1986): 31 and 5 months.

JUNIOR-SENIOR WINNERS
Dürr (junior: 1960; senior: 1967).
Jausovec (junior: 1973; senior: 1977).
Mandlikova (junior: 1978; senior: 1981).
Capriati (junior: 1989; senior: 2001).
Henin-Hardenne (junior: 1997; senior: 2003).

LONGEST MATCHES
In games-
Before the introduction of the tie-break, Mortimer d. Knode (1955), 38 games (2/6, 7/5, 10/8).
Since the introduction of the tie-break (1973), Graf d. Sanchez (1996), 40 games (6/3, 6/7, 10/8).
In time-
Graf d. Sanchez (1996), 3 h 04 (6/3, 6/7, 10/8).

UNSEEDED CHAMPIONS
Scriven (1933).

Some History...

Roland-Garros, a never-ending story
How did Roland-Garros come to be? Why is it named after an aviator? In what year was the tournament first held? Who are the legends of the game to have inscribed their name on the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy? We take a fond look back at the long and glorious history of the world's greatest clay-court championship.

Way back when…
The stadium that stages one of the world's four major tennis tournaments was built in 1928, but the French men's singles championship goes back much further than that. Originally reserved for members of French clubs, it was first held on the courts of Stade Français club in Paris in 1891. The women's singles were added six years later, it was not until 1925 that the French Tennis Federation decided to open the event to the best foreign players. Thus, the French Internationals were born, and staged alternately at Stade Français and Racing Club de France until the Roland-Garros stadium came into being in 1928.

These Musketeers need a stadium!
1927 was a milestone for French tennis, the year the celebrated French Musketeers (Jacques "Toto" Brugnon, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste) pulled off one of the biggest shocks in 20th century sport. The famous foursome upset all the odds by winning the Davis Cup on American soil, and in doing so set up a rematch in 1928, in Paris. Obviously, such a major sporting occasion required a stadium worthy of its stature, and so it was that the Stade Français handed over three hectares of land near Porte d'Auteuil to the French Tennis Federation. The only condition to the offer of land was that the new stadium should bear the name of one of Stade Français' most renowned former members, Roland-Garros, who had died some ten years earlier. Roland-Garros was an aviation pioneer who, on 23 September 1913, had become the first man to fly a plane over the Mediterranean. The 1928 French Internationals were the first event to be held in the new stadium, just before the Musketeers took centre-stage to beat the Americans in their long-awaited rematch.

The post-war period: a golden era beckons
The Musketeers held on to the Davis Cup for another five years, only giving up the famous silver salad bowl in 1933, by which time the French Internationals at Roland-Garros had well and truly established themselves as a major international tournament. Cancelled from 1940 to 1945 due to the Second World War, Roland-Garros went from strength to strength in the post-war period, reflecting tennis' growth into a hugely popular sport-for-all. Another significant turning point came in 1968 when the French Internationals became the first Grand Slam tournament to join the "Open" era. Professionalism brought with it yet more expansion and excitement.