The French Open will feature the world’s finest tennis players, including Novak Djokovic this year, but who was Roland Garros and whom the event is named and the meaning behind the naming
In the realm of tennis, late May can only mean one thing. It’s time to fly to Paris to compete in the season’s second grand slam, the French Open.
Novak Djokovic and Barbora Krejková are the incumbent singles champions. Rafael Nadal is aiming for a historic 14th Roland Garros championship. But who was Roland Garros really? Why is the tournament named after someone who died in 1918 and never competed in it?
Know Who Is Eugene Adrien Roland Georges Garros After Whom The French Open Is Named, Meaning, History And Story
WHAT WAS ROLAND GARROS LIKE?
Eugene Adrien Roland Georges Garros was born in 1888 at Saint-Denis, Reunion, a distant French stronghold in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar.
Moving on to modern-day France, Garros was an avid sportsman during his adolescence.
He played football, rugby, cycling, and tennis, all of which helped him recover from pneumonia.
By 1909, he was 20 years old and had seen an air show, which drew him into the fledgling field of aviation. Only six years after the Wright Brothers soared to the sky on the beach at Kitty Hawk.
At the onset of World War I in the summer of 1914, Roland Garros signed up for the French army, setting altitude records along the way.
Garros had conducted the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from his home France to Tunisia the year before, taking over eight hours.
FLYING ACE WAS FINALLY SHOT DOWN:
Garros shot down three German planes in early April 1915, after successfully modifying his plane so that the propeller would not be harmed by his own gunfire.
However, on April 18, 1915, he was shot down over Belgium by German ground fire, and he spent the next three years as a POW.
He fled with another pilot in February 1918 and made it to London before rejoining the French army and returning to the skies.
Roland Garros was fatally shot down in Ardennes, Belgium, on October 5, 1918. Only one day before his 30th birthday and a little over a month before the November 11th Armistice.
ROLAND GARROS’S FRENCH OPEN LEGACY:
Garros was one of the most accomplished French pilots in WWI aerial dogfights and was eventually honored as such.
One example was the dedication of the new facility to serve as the site of the French Open.
Officially, all French Open events are held in Stade Roland Garros, which has 20 courts and a tennis museum.
It is the only grand slam played on clay. Rafael Nadal holds the most championships with 13 as of the start of the 2022 event.
However, the words French Open and Roland Garros are used interchangeably.
Recommended: The Sports Fan App