The French Open tennis championship at Roland Garros stadium

Late spring brings international sporting attention to Paris for the French Open tennis championship. This second of the year’s Grand Slam events and the only one to be held on clay is always a major sporting occasion and this year promises, as always, a feast of action and excitement for tennis fans. The event takes place from May 24th to June 7th at the Roland Garros stadium, just across the Seine from the Hotel Eden. This legendary sports venue covers 8.5 hectares and boasts twenty courts.

A tennis Grand Slam event in Paris on clay

The French Open brings the spring clay court season to a close. Clay is the slowest of the tennis court surfaces and produces a high bounce. It’s not an easy surface to master, and as it slows the ball down it gives rise to longer points, testing the stamina of the players to an intense degree. Physically challenging, clay requires the players to dig deep into their reserves of strength, skill and concentration. Certain players have gained a reputation as clay court specialists, none more so today than the Spanish maestro Rafael Nadal, who has claimed the French Open crown on nine of the last ten occasions and may well do so again in 2015.

The stadium has several locations in which you can enjoy a bite to eat, including restaurants, takeaway counters, and a superb Lounge Bar in which you can sip a cool drink while watching the games on plasma screens so that you miss none of the action.   

In between the matches, you should not miss the chance to take a trip through the history of the game at the French Tennis Federation Museum, open daily to French Open ticketholders during the tournament and filled with fascinating memorabilia, including clothing and equipment that once belonged to the giants of the sport.

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French Open tennis tournament Rolland Garros :
01 47 43 51 11
Subway : Line 9 : Mairie de Montreuil - Pont de Sèvres (stations Michel-Ange Auteuil ou Michel-Ange Molitor)
Line 10 : Gare d'Austerlitz - Boulogne (stations Porte d'Auteuil ou Boulogne Jean-Jaurès)

~oOo~

Picture Ladies Final - Roland Garros 2012 copyright holder: Mathieu Lebreton, sur Flickr

Hotel Eden Paris, a Hotel with garden, close to the Porte de Versailles