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TALES FROM THE WIMBLEDON GROUNDSTAFF – SEPTEMBER

22 September, 2011 – 9:38 am

We caught up with Head Groundsman designate Neil Stubley to learn about what’s been going on around the Grounds at the AELTC this September…

September is about renovation, and the closing of the grass courts. The Members will have their end of season grass court tournament which they had last Saturday, so now officially the grass courts are closed. But because we’ve still got a little bit of time, we’ve still got some of the practice courts open.

A recently renovated court

The courts that have been renovated through August, are now ready to be top-dressed. We also prick the top of the courts, to let the air in there. There’s a team out top-dressing getting the levels back, and a team doing the renovating. By the end of October, we’d want to have top-dressed all the practice courts then too. Once the first frosts start coming in, which is early November, the surface becomes very soft, and the machines that you need to do the top-dressing don’t work so well.

Centre Court, for example, has been renovated and top dressed, so it is what we would class as being ‘put to bed.’ So we’ll manage it from now until the spring, and then the natural April/May spring flush of growth will thicken it up to the thickness that we want for the forthcoming season. From now until the spring it’s a case of man-managing the courts so they’re healthy. Keeping the air in the surface, making sure they have enough food to last them for the winter.

A court ready to be top-dressed

The practice courts operate on a slightly different schedule. Two of the blocks of courts, at the College, are turned into croquet lawns after The Championships, and they stay in until October. The rest of them, we split into two, and we renovate half one year, half the next, because we can’t fit them all in every year.

We haven’t lost that much play because of the weather. But it’s when you start to renovate, that’s when it gets wet and it doesn’t dry out very quickly. We’ve had one of our worst-case scenarios of a wet, not particularly warm summer. When we get to renovation time, it’s always better if it’s warmer and drier, because we can control how much water we put on. But if you’ve got a lot of rain, you get restricted on what you can and can’t do. As long as we get a two-three week dry window that gets us back on track.

Centre Court ready to be 'put to bed'

What else has been going on?
We went to our annual trade show, touch base with our current suppliers, and take a look at what’s new, just to make sure we’re still getting what’s best for this club. Down to the marking compound, it’s evolving all the time. A brighter line, longer-lasting line, for example. Machines that will give you a crisper edge to your line. Every single part of it is changing all the time.

Is there anything changing around the Grounds?
There’s only a few bits of enabling work going on, so it’s the first time since I started that it’s not been noisy.I started in 1995 so they were already a year into construction for No. 1 Court, then the Millennium Building, the roof, No.2, No.3. On and on. So we’re getting a bit of a break this year.

Has this year taught you anything as far as preparing for the Olympics?
Pray for dry weather! We’ve done some trials this year, renovating the baselines in a 20-day window, and they worked ok, which given that it was the worst-case scenario, it was wet and cold, we hit our targets. So we know it will work. Best case scenario is that after next years’ Championships it will be dry and warm, which means we can control the irrigation, and everything will be even better than it was this year. As groundsmen, it’s a once in a lifetime experience for us.

Follow one of the Wimbledon groundsmen on twitter

Alexandra Willis


TALES FROM THE WIMBLEDON GROUNDSTAFF – AUGUST

16 August, 2011 – 9:45 am

Interspersed with several grass court tournaments and a lot of play for members, August sees the continued renovation of the grass courts at the All England Club. Head Groundsman designate Neil Stubley updates us on what’s been going on around the grounds…

Grass court seminar

“We had about 22 people here over two days to discuss all the ins and outs of keeping grass courts. One of the guys was from Boston, he runs a tennis club there that the US team are going to use as their base camp for pre-Olympics, so he’s been sent to have a look at what we do here. We get together with grass experts, soil experts, Scott’s fertisiler company to discuss good or bad fertiliser regimes, what seeds are best, what soils are best for tennis. We do demonstrations, how we renovate the courts. Queen’s Club come in and practically demonstrate their spring preparations, it’s not all about what we do here.

Court 12 one week after being renovated

I’ve always preached that this is what we do here at Wimbledon, it’s not the right way or the wrong way, but it’s how we do it and it’s how it works for us. Everyone has their own site, so there is no should and shouldn’t be doing. For example, Centre Court and Court 12 have completely different dynamics, which will be different to the tennis club down the road. At the end of the day it’s growing grass, and you can either make it very, very complicated, or very, very easy. And we make it very easy. If you are a good groundsman, you know when your grass needs something.”

The renovation process

“Centre, No.1, No.2, No.3 Court and Court 12 have all been renovated, which means we’ve shaved all the grass off and re-planted it. Hopefully by mid-August, all bar three of the southern courts will be done. They’re being kept for the Antiques Roadshow. Next will be the Northern courts, we’ll work on them until the Antiques Roadshow, and then we’ll do the practice courts. It’s a bit of a balancing act, normally you’d want all the Championships courts done by the end of August.

We shave them, let the grass grow and thicken up, and then it’s time to top dress with five to six tonnes of soil them to correct the nutrients levels. You can do that 5-6 weeks after it’s been renovated, and it takes 3-4 weeks.

No.1 Court five weeks after being renovated

So No.1 Court for example will be top-dressed by the end of this week. Then they’re ‘put to bed’ and we just cut them and manage them over the winter.”

Closing the grass courts

“August is also when we start to close the grass courts. From now on the agreement with the members is that we take out courts as and when we are ready to take them out. There is a tournament on the 17th which is the closing of the grass courts for the members at Aorangi. But we only close them a little bit at a time so the members can play for two weeks after that, effectively.

The Road to Wimbledon tournament is taking place at the moment, which requires 18 courts. We’ve also given them the use of some of the Championships courts as well, subject to what members need.

We’ve got a trade show coming up in September, so that’ll be the subject of next month’s blog!”

Follow one of the Wimbledon groundsmen on twitter

Alexandra Willis


JUST ANOTHER DAY IN STATS AT SW19…

1 August, 2011 – 11:49 am

OUR AUSTRALIAN VISITORS, DAVID STEED AND ROWENA ROSALES, WHO WORKED ON THE IBM STATISTICS TEAM FOR WIMBLEDON 2011, GIVE US THEIR TAKE ON A TYPICAL DAY WORKING AT THE CHAMPIONSHIPS…

8:00am Wake up. What, no Vegemite for breakfast!? A cup of tea will suffice (English Breakfast of course!).

10:00am Stroll through Wimbledon Park on the way to the courts. Disappoint the crowd of hundreds queuing for a ticket, “Sorry mate, I don’t have any free tickets.”

10:30am Meet the IBM team at the rooftop garden of the broadcast centre. Check the draw, schedule and court allocations for the day. The wallets come out to pay the 50p fine for yesterday’s misdemeanors (damn, I wish I hadn’t lost the court radio!).

10:45am The groundsmen are hard at work. Catch up on the daily weather forecast; partly sunny, with a chance of rain, and sun, but then rain followed by sun and an afternoon sun-shower…with the possibility of evening storms? Crikey London!

11:30am Grab the laptops and other equipment and head to court. Meet with the IBM Tech Trojans to get the green light ready for play (by the way, what is a tech trojan?…I thought they spoke English here?!

12:00pm Crowds build and the players arrive on court. “Ready? Play.” Wide serve in, backhand drive return in-play, point, forehand pass winner, player at net. 15-0…Scoreboards and TV graphics come alive. Millions of web-users log on to IBM PointStream at Wimbledon.com. And check out SecondSight; some great technology here at The Championships.

Highlights from the stats team at Wimbledon 2011

1:30pm Grey clouds roll in overhead. The umbrellas open and here come the court covers. “Ladies and Gentlemen, play is suspended.”

2:00pm While the laptops dry, it’s a perfect time for a lunch break. Indulge in Wimbledon’s most iconic off-court tradition: strawberries and cream…but demonstrate restraint on the Pimm’s!

3:30pm The rain stops and the covers come off. Back to work…forehand, backhand, pass, error, ace, volley, smash, approach, drop…wait, was that a serve and volley? We must be playing on grass! The match heads into a fifth set…

4:30pm Grab another quick break. Head across to Henman Hill, or is it Murray Mound? As Aussies, let’s instead claim this grass as Tomic’s Turf! “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi Oi!”…oh dear, too good Nole.

5:00pm Back to work; a new court and a new match. The sun is out…in fact, hang on, I think we’re sunburnt! All four seasons in one day at the AELTC.

5:05pm Struth, spoke too soon. The heavens open and it’s back to the control room to wait-out another rain delay. Take advantage of this break in play to catch up with some of our Australian Open colleagues and umpire mates. Love the uniform guys.

6:30pm The rain eases enough to go exploring around the picturesque grounds of the All England Club. Looking good Wills and Kate! Time also to collate all the orders for tournament towels and hit the gift shop.

7:30pm Still raining, the referee calls it a day with all matches rescheduled for tomorrow. A throng of spectators and staff make their way to Wimbledon Village.

9:00pm Off to the Tennis Australia house for a BBQ (and no, there are no shrimps on the barbie here!). Congratulations to John Newcombe on 40 years since his third and final Wimbledon title. What a great speech.

11:00pm Home time, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

The 2011 Championships in stats…

  • Fastest Serve (Gentlemens’ Singles) – A. Roddick 143mph
  • Fastest Serve (Ladies’ Singles) – S. Lisicki 124mph
  • Ace Leader (Gentlemens’ Singles) – J. Tsonga 108 (6 matches)
  • Ace Leader (Ladies’ Singles) – S. Lisicki 44 (6 matches)
  • Total Points Played (Main Draw Singles) – 45,464

(including 10,432 unforced errors and 15,314 winners)

  • Double Fault Leader (Gentlemens’ Singles) – J. Tsonga 27 (6 matches)
  • Double Fault Leader (Ladies’ Singles) – M. Sharapova 38 (7 matches)
  • Correct Player Challenges (Gentlemen’s Singles) – 28.61% (103/360)
  • Correct Player Challenges (Ladies’ Singles) – 32.96% (59/179)
  • Retirements (Main draw singles) – 7
  • Balls used – 54,250
  • Height of grass on match courts – 8mm
  • Total prize money – £14.6m
  • Strawberries consumed – 28,000 kg (112,000 punnets)

Thanks and goodnight Wimbledon, you put on a great show. Bring on New York and, of course, see you all at Melbourne Park for AO 2012!


TALES FROM THE WIMBLEDON GROUNDSTAFF – JULY

28 July, 2011 – 1:56 pm

Head Groundsman designate Neil Stubley updates us on what’s been going on around the Grounds in July…

“The Championships was very good from our point of view. Exactly what we wanted. A bit of rain, a bit of sun, and it finished on time.
We got some good feedback on the courts, and about the roof as well. All the players that played under the roof were really happy, Federer played under it for the first time and said it was good. So if it’s good enough for him we’re more than happy.

Centre Court

A closer look at Centre Court

Once the final had finished, we had 24 hours grace where we collect players chairs and just make sure that all the covers have pulled off irrigation heads, and then on the Tuesday, for 2pm we had to have grass courts available for members. So within 36 hours of The Championships we had 10 courts cut and marked and prepped ready for the members. The only thing is, once The Championships has finished, we are governed by the weather. We don’t cover the courts for the members. So if it rains, the grass courts are out of action. The members put in the odd request but they tend to be happy with any of the courts.

Centre Court isn’t used by the members. We weed killed it, which took a week to take effect, and then we start on the renovation programme, growing the grass from scratch. It’s a total weed killer, it will kill the grass and everything, and then we start from scratch. We do the same to No.1 and No.2 Courts maybe No.3 Court. Given the choice we’d do them all. But because you have to leave it 10 days, we don’t really have that window of opportunity to leave them before we have to work on them.

Centre Court

The grass being removed from Centre Court

Aorangi Park though is closed. As soon as The Championships is finished, Aorangi is closed down and we renovate the baselines, get some seed down, cover them up. Because in August we have seven weeks of tournaments at Aorangi – the Vets Championships, which is a 22 grass court tournament, and then the HSBC Road to Wimbledon. There’s also the Inter-services competition between the Army, Navy, RAF, and then plus members courts and matches at weekends.

But we’ve also got the hard courts back in action once all the marquees were taken down, so there are plenty of options for the members to play on.

As far as our team goes, we’ve still got 26 guys working, which will startdropping off slowly from August onwards. The Aussie guys have to go back for 1 September because it’s their season starting there. We get them for their close season. And then we have college students. We normally keep hold of two-three until the end of October.

Alexandra Willis


FROM PARIS TO LONDON IN STATS

11 July, 2011 – 12:59 pm

June is a slightly terrifying time at the All England Club. Structures and edifices are rising at a rate of knots, in places you did not know even existed. What was once a car park is now the Long Bar, mere patches of grass are being transformed into fully-fledged tennis courts complete with seats, lines and even the shell that covers the scoreboard.

It has been an equally busy time for the team of IBM data collectors, whose very important job it is to collate statistics during the matches which are used by the players, the BBC and other journalists and are sent all over the world. So it’s no small task for the team of tennis-minded experts.

We caught up with David and Rowe, our visitors from Australia, who are working on the IBM data collectors team this year.

What have you been up to in the past month?

“Travel was the flavour of the month. Initially during our training week we took the opportunity to explore not too far from home, checking out some lovely towns around the UK including Bath, Windsor and Oxford. After our training, we continued onto central and eastern Europe for two weeks. A few of our favourite cities included Berlin, Prague and Venice. I then went to work at Roland Garros,” says David, “while Rowena ventured to the Greek Isles.”

David and Rowe at the French Open

Not bad at all! How was the French Open?

“Springtime Paris was the perfect setting for the second Grand Slam of the year, and the climax of the clay-court swing. Although we’d hoped for more Aussie success in the singles draw, there were some great match-ups and memorable moments on court, particularly Novak Djokovic’s first loss of the 2011 season to Roger Federer. The WTA kept us guessing as well, with seeds falling early to open the draw for some genuine battles. Also it was great to see Casey Dellacqua’s return to tennis with a championship win in the mixed doubles!”

“As a tournament, Roland Garros offered a great blend of history and contemporary ideas for fans and players. It’s an event that the locals are very proud of, and enjoying sharing with their guests. The Roland Garros stadium is an elegant venue, full of beautiful people, boutiques, gardens and an attractive style of tennis. Although the fans loved their tennis, I still got the impression they also just loved to be seen at the French Open! Even so, Roland Garros is one of the best stops on tour, both as an event and a tournament.”

Now what about Wimbledon – have you had to come in for much training with the rest of the team?

“We attended two training sessions last month where we learnt about the similarities and differences in collecting data between our two Grand Slams. Striking contrasts for us were workstation locations, the number of courts covered, terminology, the appraisal process and the different team roles.”

“Whilst on site, we also explored the Grounds and stadiums as well as visiting the Museum. Training was a nice opportunity to meet a few of the team supervisors and operations staff, some of whom have been a part of Wimbledon for decades! Next week we will meet the full squad of statisticians at the pre-tournament dress rehearsal, many of whom study and play tennis abroad. This time will also be a great opportunity to touch base with some familiar faces from Melbourne Park – those officials and broadcast partners who work at both Slams.”

Who are you looking forward to watching?

“It will be great to support many of the Aussie players at The Championships, particularly our top-ranked female Sam Stosur, who will surely be looking to build a record on grass this year. In recent times however it has been the ATP that has offered some great match-ups, both in Paris and at earlier Masters 1000 events; particularly between the top three ranked men. So we are looking forward to seeing how Federer and Nadal fare, as well as following Djokovic’s win-loss record. We also enjoy watching Murray play, and it will be great to be amongst his local fans during matches at his home Slam.”

What will you be doing between now and when the Championships start?

“We are keen to continue to explore London a bit more, but also rest well before moving into Southfields for the start of qualifying and the dress rehearsal next week.”

TALES FROM THE WIMBLEDON GROUNDSTAFF – JUNE

11 July, 2011 – 12:51 pm

June has arrived, and with it, 19 immaculate grass courts, nipped, tucked and ready to go for the commencement of The Championships, 2011 in seven days time. For Eddie Seaward, Neil Stubley and the eager team of groundstaff at the All England Club, much of the hard work has already been done in preparing the courts – each member of the staff has been assigned a specific court to take care of, meaning that most people are well into their daily routine.

Cutting and marking, are the watch words, as the grass is mown every day, the lines re-painted, all to ensure they are in the best possible condition for when the hundreds of players start hitting their first balls in competitive anger on Monday 20 June.

“We’re pretty much there,” says Stubley, for whom this is his first Championships as Head Groundsman Designate. “We’re just tidying up the courts now, making sure all the furniture is there, maintaining them, doing a bit of spraying here and there.”

The recent wet weather conditions have prompted Seaward and his team to do a bit more rolling than usual, to make sure the courts are nice and firm, and from last Friday, the courts began to be covered overnight.

“It’s a case of managing the moisture,” explains Stubley. Seaward and Stubley also have the full complement of groundstaff to manage – 26 at the moment, with four more to come this weekend, and the army of Court Coverers who start when The Championships begin on Monday.

But aside from the final preparations, the groundstaff have another big task to manage during the weeks before The Championships: the arrival of the players.

Those such as Lleyton Hewitt and Maria Sharapova, who are members of the Club, have been around for a couple of weeks, so making sure there are courts for them to use, and maintaining those courts, is another thing to think about.

Practice for the rest of the players competing in The Championships officially opened at the Aorangi courts on Saturday, and so from now up until The Championships, they’ll be chockablock with players getting in as much last-minute preparation as possible.

Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Hewitt, Richard Gasquet, Sharapova and Jamie Murray are just some of the famous faces trying out forehands and backhands on the Church Road turf. And from Wednesday, players will be allowed onto The Championships’ courts themselves.

“Seeded players are allowed to practice for half an hour a day, while other players in the draw are allowed one half an hour slot before The Championships, which most of them will take up on Saturday.”

A video of some players in practice action…

By Alexandra Willis


TALES FROM THE WIMBLEDON GROUNDSTAFF – MAY

20 May, 2011 – 1:21 pm

The activity around the Grounds during the month of May at the All England Club ramps up several notches, as the furniture is assembled around the courts, and the numbers of people on site go up and up and up. With just a month to go until The Championships, May is about cramming in as much as possible, so that the finishing touches can be made in June.

Contrary to popular belief, The Championships is not the first time that the grass gets played on. The majority of the courts, bar Centre and No.1, are open to the Members ahead of The Championships, with the first day of play usually taking place in mid May, which is an added task for Head Groundsman Eddie Seaward and his team.

While the sward has been mowed regularly, reducing by a mm each week to get it down to its playing height of 8mm, the next step is adding the lines. This is not, as you might think, a case of a few dudes wandering around with pots of paint. In fact, marking out the court is a practised art that requires patience and skill. And a bit of maths.

Marking out the court

Here’s a basic guide to marking out the court, the Wimbledon way:

  • Start with your two post sockets. The distance between them is 42 feet. Measure between them and mark the middle – that is the centre of the court.
  • Measuring from the centre in each direction, mark out the outer box of the court with string (the Wimbledon groundsmen use a special orange one). The width is 36 foot, so insert two pegs, A and B, 18 foot either side of the centre mark. Measure 53’1” from A along the diagonal, and 39’ as the length, pulling both tapes taught  – these will meet at C, the corner of the court. Reverse to find point D. The length between C and D should be 36 foot. You now have one half of the box. Repeat on the other side. The groundsmen always double and triple check.
  • You can now paint the lines of the box. But, and here’s another thing you might not have known, it’s not actually paint! The groundsmen use a transfer wheel marker (or roller) to apply a white compound that contains titanium dioxide to make it durable. All the lines are 50mm wide, except the baseline, which is 100m. As you can imagine, they get through a lot of this stuff – about 500 gallons each year!
  • Depending on personal preference, the groundsmen use the string as a guide, walking along with the wheel marker slowly and carefully either to the left or right of the string. Each line is rolled just once, they don’t go over and over.
  • Then it’s time to measure and mark the singles tramlines – 13’6” from the centre.
  • Then measure and mark the service lines.
  • Then measure and mark the centre line (18’ from the centre), and the ‘toe’ – the funny jutty out bit where you serve from.
  • And that’s it! Phew.

The finished article - Centre Court

At this time of year, the courts are usually re-marked every two to three days, depending on the weather. But during The Championships, they are re-marked every day. In fact, the whole process is repeated 41 times for each court.

So with exactly a month to go until The Championships, the various groundsmen are allocated their specific jobs during the tournament, which courts they will be responsible for mowing and marking, and that’s all they will be doing between now and July.

It’s just around the corner!

Follow one of the Wimbledon groundsmen on twitter

Alexandra Willis


NOTES FROM SOME STATISTICALLY-MINDED VISITORS

6 May, 2011 – 1:36 pm

Ever spotted someone sitting on a computer at the end of a Wimbledon court? They are the famous IBM-ers, a group of tennis-mad youngsters who gather together for each Grand Slam to chart the statistics of each match. Those serve percentages you see on the TV? Those numbers reeled off by commentators? They all come from the IBM data collection team.

This year, The Championships has two new faces in the IBM team, who’ve hopped across several ponds, all the
way from Australia. Alongside their normal jobs, David Steed and Rowena Rosales have worked on the team at the Australian Open for many a year (11 for Rowe, 7 for David), and, this year, had a little brainwave. Why not try it out at Wimbledon? So, they put forward an application to IBM, given their interest and passion for Grand Slam tennis, and the opportunity to learn from Wimbledon, and, two plane journeys later, here they are.

The journey

This is Rowena’s second visit to the UK, where she arrived in late April to attend the IBM pre-tournament training. Rowena is also looking forward to traveling around Europe prior to the commencement of The Championships.

David arrived in London this week from the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain, and prior to this, the United States, where he was involved with the scoring operations teams at both Indian Wells and Miami – March madness in America! Prior to the tournament, David is also looking forward to working at Roland Garros with fellow Tennis Australia colleagues.

The 2011 tournament will be the duo’s first visit to the Wimbledon club.

Time to hear what in particular they are looking forward to…

Rowena and David at Melbourne Park

Comparing Melbourne Park and Wimbledon

“We are excited to contrast these two great tournaments. But not only the weather, grass and the Australian Open mustard uniforms! For us, we are looking forward to experiencing how Wimbledon blends tennis tradition with technological innovation – something very important when it comes to powering a successful Grand Slam.”

“Back home, the great thing about Australian Open tennis is the fans. They are excited about their tennis, and have an insatiable appetite for the information that tells the story of the match. We expect Wimbledon fans to be just as knowledgeable and passionate
about their event, and we look forward to seeing how they consume and engage with the information we serve up here at the AELTC.”

The role of data collectors and statistics…

“Data collectors both here and in Melbourne are responsible for driving the tournament’s scoring network; providing detailed
point-by-point match information in real-time. Statisticians work as a courtside team to collect up to 15 different statistics per point – such as, double faults, service speed, unforced errors and shot selection. This information is captured on IBM systems in an accurate and timely fashion, requiring great concentration, attention to detail and tennis knowledge.”

“IBM has been in a glorious relationship with worldwide tennis for decades. And it’s a perfect partnership for us as statisticians, where collecting data is just the beginning. Thanks to IBM, this information is disseminated to players and fans in a variety of ways – certainly, the savvy tennis community is hungry for information in many forms. With our data, you can interact with scores
courtside and venue-wide, as well as through television broadcasts and of course, via the web and mobile/tablet apps. Players and trainers also draw upon our collected information as a coaching tool.”

“Thus, whether you are onsite, or perhaps on the other side of the world, everyone has access to Grand Slam tennis, and is able to engage match analysis in real time. Certainly for us, capturing data that creates this deeper and personalised fan experience is part of the job we really value…and watching tennis isn’t too bad a perk either!”

Challenges…

“There are many universal concepts and definitions in regards to tennis statistics. However, there are also some intricacies in software usage and workforce policies that are unique to each tournament. Currently, that’s the challenge for us – to learn and adopt these new practices here at Wimbledon, ensuring that we can best contribute to the team and the tournament. Importantly though, helping us prepare is a series of pre-tournament IBM training sessions held at the Club throughout May.”

Watch this space for further updates from David and Rowe in the coming weeks as The Championships draws ever nearer…

Alexandra Willis


COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS TO ROLAND GARROS

3 May, 2011 – 9:29 am

If you’ve been mulling over the  recent results on the clay, then you’ll no doubt be extremely excited to know that the Roland Garros 2011 website has just gone live, meaning there’s just 14 days till the year’s second Grand Slam kicks off in Paris.

So get out your croissants and cafe cremes, your garlic and baguettes, because here’s our guide to this year’s French Open…

1. The clay court swing started off by the turquoise Mediterranean sea at Monte Carlo, and five weeks later is reaching its culmination, by the slightly less picturesque waters of the Seine. Having begun as a national tournament in 1891, the French
Championships opened itself up to international competitors in 1925. Back then the tournament was played on (would you believe?) grass, at the Stade Francais club. But in 1928, the Stade Francais offered three hectares of land at Porte
d’Auteil to the tennis authorities, with the condition that the new stadium be named after a certain World War I pilot. Thus Roland Garros was born. In 1968 the French tournament became the first of the four Grand Slams to go ‘open,’ allowing amateurs and professionals to compete together. Earlier this year, the French Tennis Federation agreed to keep the French Open at the Roland Garros site, and instigate a whole host of building work to extend the tiny site.

2. Roland Garros has 20 outdoor red clay courts, including the three show courts. The main court (the Philippe Chatrier court) can accommodate 14,884 spectators, No.1 court (Suzanne Lenglen) holds 9,983 people, while Court 1 has room for 3,792. Our personal favourites, though, are courts No.2 and No.3. Designed much like the new court No.2 at Wimbledon, these two are sunk into the ground, creating an amphitheatre-like atmosphere. They’re great for getting up close to the action. If you’re interested in doing a little star spotting, the best place to hover is by the players’ entrance under Tribune J. Brugnon in the Court Philippe Chatrier. You might get lucky.

3. From the ‘four musketeers’ (four French men – Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste – who reigned supreme in the 1920s and 1930s) to Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert’s domination of the 1970s and Ivan Lendl and Steffi
Graf’s ruling the roost in the 1980s, Roland Garros has a rich and varied history of champions. The person everyone’s eyes will be on, is of course, Rafael Nadal. Can the defending champion notch up his sixth Roland Garros crown? Or will something, or someone get in the way. A certain Roger Federer maybe? On the women’s side, with the likes of Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters likely to be absent through injury, it’s very much up for grabs. Will one of the young femmes fatales such as Caroline Wozniacki or Victoria Azarenka triumph in Paris? Or someone completely different, of the ebullient Francesca Schiavone mould.We shall have to wait and see..

4. There should be a healthy contingent of Brits in action. Andy Murray will be attempting to go a little further than his fourth-round appearance of last year, while Elena Baltacha will be straight into the main draw, possibly joined by Heather Watson. Brits such as Anne Keothavong and Katie O’Brien should feature in the qualifying tournament (which takes place a week before the main event) and the junior competition, where the likes of George Morgan and Oliver Golding should be making an appearance.

5. Unsurprisingly, the French Open offers many opportunities for fine dining. There’s a plethora of eateries around the event, from sarnies to salads to good old fashioned chips. Further afield, Richard Gasquet recommends Le Murat, while the women’s champion will often eat at the world-famous Brasserie Lipp after the final (but they don’t take bookings so you’ll have to queue). Meanwhile, a certain Spaniard likes to celebrate his victories at Café de L’Homme, which has stunning views of the Eiffel Tower.

6. Tickets for the tournament went on sale at the beginning of March, but don’t worry if you haven’t got any yet as there is an official channel for buying and selling tickets on Viagogo. If you don’t manage to get to Paris, you’ll be able to keep in touch with all the action through the fabulous mediums of twitter and Facebook, and right here on Wimbledon.com as well. Get ready now…aaaaaalllllleeeeeezzzz!

Alexandra Willis