The strangest clay
The surface on the Roland Garros courts is not really clay in the true sense of the word. The tournament website states that it consists of a bedrock and layers of gravel (at least 30 cm), clinker (approx. 7 cm), which is a material produced during the production of cement, and white limestone (approx. 7 cm). At the top is a thin, only two-millimeter layer of crushed bricks, giving a typical deep orange tone.
“Clay in Paris is different than anywhere else, a bit of flour, powder,” last year’s champion Barbora Krejčíková described for the Czech Radio website. The winner of the mixed doubles from 1991, Cyril Suk, then described the local surface for TenisPortál.cz as follows: “In fact, it’s hard concrete and it’s just a dusting of clay. Compared to what we are used to from our conditions, the balls fly faster and bounce more. ” Representatives of Roland Garros state that an average of 1.1 tons of crushed bricks will be used to prepare one court.
The oldest winner
He was 34 years and 22 days old when Djokovic defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (6) 2-6 6-3 6-2 and 6-4 in last year’s Roland Garros final after a famous turnaround. This year, the Belgrade native would triumph at the age of 35 and become a record holder for 14 days. Nadal, who will face him in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, would move the bar even higher for his followers. It will celebrate its 36th birthday on Saturday, June 3.
As for women’s singles at the French Open, the oldest winner is Serena Williams, who took over the Suzanne Lenglen Cup in 2015 at the age of 33 years and 258 days. And the oldest local champion, ie the champion, is still the American Elizabeth Ryan. In 1934, at a time when the tournament under the then name French Championships was not yet open to professionals, she won the doubles at the age of 42 years and 88 days with the Frenchwoman Simone Mathieu.
The youngest winner
On the opposite pole of the male single we find Michael Chang, who was 17 years, 3 months and 20 days old at the time of his triumph in 1989. He had an impressive journey through the tournament, during which he defeated, among others, Pete Sampras and the then number one Ivan Lendl, and in the final he pushed Stefan Edberg 6-1 3-6 4-6 6-4 6-2. At that time, Chang became the youngest male champion in all grand slams, which is still the case today. Surprisingly, however, it was his only title in the Big Four tournaments.
Monika Selešová is the absolute record holder regardless of gender. She was only 16 years and 190 days old when she defeated then-No. 1 Steffi Graf 7-6 (8) 6-4 in the 1990 French Open final. This made her the youngest singles champion across the grand slam. Martina Hingisová still moved this record and still holds it. The native of Košice was on January 26, 1997, when she won the Australian Open, 16 let a 117 days.
MOST titles
King of clay, the French Open phenomenon. It’s hard to say if there’s anyone who can repeat or even overcome Nadal’s dominance on Roland Garros: He hasn’t lost any of the 13 finals he’s made. In addition, he went through the tournament four times, in 2008, 2010, 2017 and 2020, without losing a single set, and five years ago he lost only 35 games during the entire championship.
As for women’s singles, Chris Evert holds the French Open record. The Florida native was as dominant in clay as she was later, and Nadal won seven of her 18 grand slams in Paris (1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985 and 1986). It is an even more admirable act, given that she did not participate in the years 1976, 1977 and 1978. The vast majority of this period was Evert’s world number one.
The longest match
Tennis marathon extended over two days. This was the duel of the first round of singles on May 24 and 25, 2004, in which the Frenchman Fabrice Santoro defeated compatriot Arnaud Clément after six hours and 33 minutes. Santoro won the first two sets 6-4 and 6-3, but Clément 7-6 (5) and 6-3 won the next two sets. In the fifth set, he served 5-4 to win, but Santoro turned away the match and leveled 5-5. At that moment, the match was interrupted due to darkness and continued until the next day.
“I only took a liter of water, I expected us to play for about fifteen minutes,” then said Santoro. He was wrong. With Clément, they dragged on for another two hours, and the fifth set lasted three hours without eight minutes. Happier was Santoro, who won it 16-14. It was the longest grand slam match in six years, and in 2010 it was surpassed by the Wimbledon duel Mahuta with Isner. The American longhorn triumphed after 11 hours and five minutes 6-4 3-6 6-7 (7) 7-6 (3) 70-68.
The longest tiebreak
The year before, the third set of the men’s singles third match entered the history of the French Open, as the Italian Lorenzo Sonego and the American Taylor Fritz showed the longest tiebreak in it. The shortened game, in their service, lasted as often as a whole hundred, over half an hour. Both players had several opportunities to end it during her time, Fritz made six sets. But Sonego averted them and made the same number of swordfish himself. However, he converted in the victory until the seventh in the state 18-17, overall he won 7-6 (5) 6-3 7-6 (17).
As for the longest female tie breaks, we find the Czech trail. Denisa Allertová (now Šátralová) competed for the first set with the British Johanna Kontaová in the first match of the opening round of the French Open 2015, she diverted eight sets in it and finally won it for herself in a ratio of 19-17. She won the match 7-6 (17) 4-6 6-2, but in the second round she was not enough for Bulgaria’s Cvetana Pironkova.
The most successful Czechs
Before Barbora Krejčíková, two of her compatriots reached the singles final in the history of the independent republic. In 2019, Markéta Vondroušová lost to Ashleigh Barty 1-6 3-6 and Lucie Šafářová four years earlier to Serena Williams 3-6 7-6 (2) 2-6. If we do not count the two titles of Martina Navrátilová, who achieved them in the colors of the USA, only two Czech women were in the finals. Renáta Tomanová was defeated by the British Sue Barkerová in 1976, Hana Mandlíková defeated the German Sylvia Haniková in 1981 and won one of her four grand slam titles.
The success of men dates back to the times of Czechoslovakia. Before gaining American citizenship, Ivan Lendl won the French Open three times (1984, 1986 and 1987) and advanced to the finals twice (1981 and 1985). Jan Kodeš (1970 and 1971) triumphed twice in Paris. In doubles, they have the titles of purely Czech pairs Krejčíková with Kateřina Siniaková (2018 and 2021), Andrea Hlaváčková with Lucie Hradecká (2011) and Helena Suková with Jana Novotná (1990). And Pavel Složil and Tomáš Šmíd fell in 1984 in the final.
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