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French Open Venue

The French Open is held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris. The stadium was built in 1928 and named after aviator Roland Garros, the first man to fly over the Mediterranean Sea. The complex contains 20 courts, including three stadiums, as well as a restaurant, museum, and the French national training center.

Roland Garros was built in 1927, when French tennis was at a new peak. The "Musketeers" of French tennis -- Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon -- had just won the Davis Cup in the United States in 1927, a relatively large upset. The French decided to defend their title on home soil in 1928, and Roland Garros was built to house the event. The land was received by the Stade de France under the condition that the complex was named after Garros, a respected World War I pilot. The 1928 French Championships christened the new stadium that spring.

The center court seats 14,840 spectators and is considered the centerpiece of Roland Garros. Originally known simply as Court Central, the court was renamed in 1998 after Philippe Chatrier, a long-time president of the French tennis federation. The four grandstands in the stadium are named after tennis' four "Musketeers." Court A -- later renamed Court Suzanne Lenglen -- was built in 1994 and holds 10,068 spectators. The court is named after one of the first stars of women's tennis and a six-time French Open (and Wimbledon) winner.

Roland Garros features clay courts, making the French Open the only Grand Slam event played on clay. The material that makes up the courts is more than just clay: the courts are surfaced with a combination of white limestone and powdered red brick dust on top. In 1928, the surface was completely innovative and meant to deal with clay courts' largest problem, poor drainage. Since then, few true clay courts have been built, but courts made with the limestone and brick mixture play similarly to true clay courts and are classified as clay courts. The red brick layer on top of the court must be relaid often -- sometimes daily, during major tournaments.

In 2009, the French tennis federation commissioned an expansion of Roland Garros, now the smallest of the Grand Slam arenas. The expansion included not only renovations of several existing courts but the construction of at least one new stadium and two more courts. The federation faced opposition from the city government, and the next year, officials contemplated moving the French Open to a new, larger stadium somewhere else in Paris.

The federation voted to keep the French Open at Roland Garros in 2011, citing the cost of building a new stadium, which would be almost double the expected cost of renovations. They still hope to expand Roland Garros sometime soon in the coming years.

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