French Open

The French Open (French: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (French: [ʁɔlɑ̃ ɡaʁos]), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held after the Australian Open and before Wimbledon and the US Open. It was established in 1891 but it did not become a Grand Slam level event until 1925.

The French Open begins in late May and continues for two weeks. The tournament and venue are named after the French aviator Roland Garros.

The French Open is the premier clay court tournament in the world and the only Grand Slam tournament currently held on this surface. Until 1975, the French Open was the only major tournament not played on grass. Due to the clay surface characteristics favoring long rallies and high physical demand, and the men's seven rounds of best-of-five sets needed for a championship, the French Open is widely regarded as the most physically demanding tournament in tennis.

History

Officially named in French Internationaux de France de Tennis, the tournament uses the name Roland-Garros in all languages, and it is usually called the French Open in English.

In 1891, the Championnat de France, commonly called the "French Championships", began. It was only open to tennis players who were members of French clubs. The first winner was H. Briggs, a Briton who lived in Paris and was a member of the Club Stade Français. The first women's singles tournament, with four entries, was held in 1897. The mixed doubles event was added in 1902 and the women's doubles in 1907. The tournament was not held between 1915 and 1919 because of World War I. After 1925, the French Championships became open to all amateur players internationally and was designated a major championship.

The tournament has been held at the Stade de Roland Garros in Paris since 1928. During World War II, the tournament was not held in 1940 and from 1941 through 1945 it took place on the same grounds, but those events are not recognized by the French governing body, the Fédération Française de Tennis. In 1968, the French Championships became the first Grand Slam tournament to go open, allowing both amateurs and professionals to compete. The tournament has introduced new prizes and traditions over the years, and in 2022, it adopted a new tiebreaker format for the deciding set.

Surface

The French Open is the only big tennis event played on clay courts. Since 1978, when the US Open switched to hard courts, the French Open has used clay. Clay is a slow surface that makes the ball bounce higher and slower, which changes how players need to play. This surface makes it harder for players who rely mainly on strong serves to win.

Many great players have won the French Open, showing they can play well on clay. The clay courts are made from red clay dust, crushed limestone, coal aggregate, crushed gravel, and drain rock fragments. Unlike Wimbledon, the French Open still uses people to call lines instead of computers, because dust from the clay can make computer calls less accurate.

Trophies

The winners of the French Open receive special trophies made of pure silver, crafted by a famous jewelry house in Paris called Mellerio dits Meller. Each year since 1953, the champions get their names written on the trophies, and they also receive smaller, custom-made copies to keep.

The men’s singles winner gets a trophy called the Coupe des Mousquetaires, or The Musketeers’ Cup, named after four famous French tennis players. It weighs 14 kg and is 40 cm tall. The women’s singles winner receives the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, named after a famous tennis player. Both trophies are kept by the French Tennis Federation, and winners get smaller replicas.

Prize money and ranking points

For the 2025 French Open, the prize money pool was €56.352 million, which is a bit more than the 2024 edition.

Players can earn points that help them move up in rankings, and the rules for these points are different for men and women.

Champions

The French Open, also called Roland-Garros, has many champions throughout its history. In the past, winners have been honored with special awards like the Coupe des Mousquetaires for men's singles and the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen for women's singles.

Today, new champions are crowned each year in several categories, including men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. You can find out more about all the champions here.

2025 French Open

Carlos Alcaraz, the 2025 men's singles champion Coco Gauff, the 2025 women's singles champion Marcel Granollers was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2025. Horacio Zeballos was part of the winning men's doubles team in 2025. Sara Errani was part of the winning women's and mixed doubles team in 2025. Jasmine Paolini was part of the winning women's doubles team in 2025. Andrea Vavassori was part of the winning mixed doubles team in 2025.

2025 event	Champion	Runner-up	Score
Men's singles	Carlos Alcaraz	Jannik Sinner	4–6, 6–7(4–7), 6–4, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(10–2)
Women's singles	Coco Gauff	Aryna Sabalenka	6–7(5–7), 6–2, 6–4
Men's doubles	Marcel Granollers Horacio Zeballos	Joe Salisbury Neal Skupski	6–0, 6–7(5–7), 7–5
Women's doubles	Sara Errani Jasmine Paolini	Anna Danilina Aleksandra Krunić	6–4, 2–6, 6–1
Mixed doubles	Sara Errani Andrea Vavassori	Taylor Townsend Evan King	6–4, 6–2

Records

The French Championships began in 1891 and were only for members of French clubs until 1924. In 1925, the tournament opened to players from all countries and became known as the French Open. By 1968, professional players were also allowed to compete, making it one of the four major tennis tournaments in the world.

Main article: WHCC

Record	Era	Player(s)	Count	Years
Men since 1891
Most singles titles	Open Era	Rafael Nadal	14	2005–2008, 2010–2014, 2017–2020, 2022
	Amateur Era	Henri Cochet	4	1926, 1928, 1930, 1932 ● World Hard Court Championships: 1922
	French Championships*	Max Decugis	8	1903–1904, 1907–1909, 1912–1914
Most consecutive singles titles	Open Era	Rafael Nadal	5	2010–2014
	Amateur Era	Frank Parker Jaroslav Drobný Tony Trabert Nicola Pietrangeli	2	1948–1949 1951–1952 1954–1955 1959–1960
	French Championships*	Paul Aymé	4	1897–1900
Most doubles titles	Open Era	Daniel Nestor Max Mirnyi	4	2007 with Mark Knowles, 2010 with Nenad Zimonjić, 2011, 2012 with Max Mirnyi. 2005, 2006 with Jonas Björkman, 2011, 2012 with Daniel Nestor.
	Amateur Era	Roy Emerson	6	1960, 1962 with Neale Fraser, 1961 with Rod Laver, 1963 with Manuel Santana, 1964 with Ken Fletcher, 1965 with Fred Stolle.
	French Championships*	Max Decugis	13	1902–1909, 1911–1914, 1920
Most consecutive doubles titles	Open Era	Daniel Nestor	3	2010–2012
	Amateur Era	Roy Emerson	6	1960–1965
	French Championships*	Maurice Germot	10	1906–1914, 1920
Most mixed doubles titles	Open Era	Jean-Claude Barclay	3	1968, 1971, 1973 with Françoise Dürr.
	Amateur Era	Ken Fletcher	3	1963–1965 with Margaret Court.
	French Championships*	Max Decugis	7	1904–1906, 1908–1909, 1914 and 1920 with Suzanne Lenglen.
Most Championships (singles, doubles & mixed doubles)	Open Era	Rafael Nadal	14	2005–2008, 2010–2014, 2017–2020, 2022 (14 singles)
	French Championships*	Max Decugis	28	1902–1920 (8 singles, 13 doubles, 7 mixed)
Women since 1897
Most singles titles	Open Era	Chris Evert	7	1974–1975, 1979–1980, 1983, 1985–1986
	French Championships*	Suzanne Lenglen	6	1920–1923, 1925–1926 ● World Hard Court Championships: 1914, 1921–23
Most consecutive singles titles	Open Era	Monica Seles Justine Henin Iga Świątek	3	1990–1992 2005–2007 2022–2024
	French Championships*	Jeanne Matthey Suzanne Lenglen	4	1909–1912 1920–1923
Most doubles titles	Open Era	/ Martina Navratilova	7	1975 with Chris Evert, 1982 with Anne Smith, 1984–1985, 1987, 1988 with Pam Shriver, 1986 with Andrea Temesvári.
	French Championships*	Simonne Mathieu	6	1933, 1934 with Elizabeth Ryan, 1936–1937, 1938 with Billie Yorke, 1939 with Jadwiga Jędrzejowska.
Most consecutive doubles titles	Open Era	Martina Navratilova Gigi Fernández	5	1984–1985, 1987–1988 with Pam Shriver, 1986 with Andrea Temesvári. 1991 with Jana Novotná, 1992–95 with Natasha Zvereva.
	French Championships*	Françoise Dürr	5	1967–1971
Most mixed doubles titles	Open Era	Françoise Dürr	3	1968, 1971, 1973 with Jean-Claude Barclay.
	French Championships*	Suzanne Lenglen	7	1914, 1920 with Max Decugis, 1921–1923, 1925, 1926 with Jacques Brugnon.
Most Championships (singles, doubles & mixed doubles)	Open Era	/ Martina Navratilova	11	1974–1988 (2 singles, 7 doubles, 2 mixed)
	French Championships*	Suzanne Lenglen	15	1919–1926 (6 singles, 2 doubles, 7 mixed)
Wheelchair: singles and doubles since 2007, quads since 2019
Most singles titles	Men	Shingo Kunieda	8	2007–2010, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2022
	Women	Esther Vergeer	6	2007–2012
	Quads	Dylan Alcott	3	2019–2021
Most consecutive singles titles	Men	Shingo Kunieda	4	2007–2010
	Women	Esther Vergeer	6	2006–2009
	Quads	Dylan Alcott	3	2019–2021
Most doubles titles	Men	Shingo Kunieda	8	2007–2011, 2013–2015
	Women	Aniek van Koot	9	2010, 2013, 2015, 2018–2022, 2024
	Quads	David Wagner	3	2019–2022
Most consecutive doubles titles	Men	Alfie Hewett Gordon Reid	5	2020–2024 2020–2024
	Women	Diede de Groot Aniek van Koot	5	2018–2022 2018–2022
	Quads	David Wagner	3	2019–2022
Miscellaneous
Unseeded champions	Men	Mats Wilander Gustavo Kuerten Gastón Gaudio	1982 1997 2004
	Women	Margaret Scriven Jeļena Ostapenko Iga Świątek Barbora Krejčíková	1933 2017 2020 2021
Youngest singles champion	Men	Michael Chang	17 years and 3 months (1989)
	Women	Monica Seles	16 years and 6 months (1990)
Oldest singles champion	Men	Novak Djokovic	36 years and 20 days (2023)
	Women	Zsuzsa Körmöczy	33 years and 10 months (1958)

Media coverage and broadcasting

France Télévisions and Amazon Prime Video have the rights to show the French Open until 2027. All night sessions are shown only on Prime Video, and France Télévisions shows its coverage from a special studio terrace.

In the United States, NBC has covered the French Open since 1975. In 2007, Tennis Channel took over some rights and shared coverage with ESPN2 until 2015. Starting in 2016, Tennis Channel showed all its coverage itself. By 2023, NBC began moving some matches to its streaming service, Peacock. In 2025, TNT Sports will take over U.S. rights as part of a big deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, showing matches on TNT, TruTV, and online through HBO Max and Discovery+.

In the United Kingdom, the BBC showed the finals from 1981 to 2011. Then ITV4 took over until 2021. Now, Eurosport has the rights, and from 2025, TNT Sports will also show the matches.

In India, Star Sports had the rights until 2021. Then Sony Pictures Networks India took over until 2027.

Across most of Europe, excluding France, Eurosport shows the French Open in over 50 countries until 2030.

Ball boys and ball girls

Every year, 280 young helpers called "ramasseurs de balles" are chosen to work at the French Open. These helpers, aged between 11 and 16, wear special Lacoste shirts and shorts. They are selected through an application process by the French Tennis Federation, which gets thousands of applications from young people all over France. After being chosen, they receive training in the weeks before the tournament begins.