French Open

French Open History:

The second Grand Slam tournament in the sport of tennis, the French Open or also known as Roland-Garros, it takes place during the last week of May and the first week of June at Stade Roland-Garros, Paris. It was founded in 1891. The tournament is played on clay and consisting of the regular seven rounds victory needed for a championship. French Open 2020 will be the 124th edition of the tournament and will be played on a renovated Court Philippe Chatrier.

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Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - September 27, 2020 General view inside the arena ahead of the first round match between Belgium's David Goffin and Italy's Jannik Sinner. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

The surface is slow and it is the only Grand Slam where the final set is retained to be an advantage set i.e., played without a tiebreaker. It is the most prominent court clay tournament of tennis and the game on his surface is regarded as the most physically exhaustive forms of tennis.

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The men’s trophy, Coupe des Mousquetaires, refers to 'The Four Musketeers' of French tennis, Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, and René Lacoste. And the women’s trophy, Coupe Suzanne Lenglen is named after the French tennis player, Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen.

The champions of the tournament are given 2000 ranking points and the ATP finalists collect 1200 ranking points and the WTA counterparts are awarded 1300. The French Open 2020 total prize money is €38 million. It is less by 10 percent this year, from €42.66 million, due to the losses on account of the coronavirus.

The men's and women's singles champions received cheques of €1.6 million each. The finalists took home €800,000 each.

This year, only 1000 fans were allowed inside the Roland Garros fields due to coronavirus concerns.

Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - Spain’s Rafael Nadal celebrates with the trophy after winning the French Open final against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Champions of the event

In the Open Era of tennis, on the men’s tour, the ‘King of Clay’, Rafael Nadal has won the highest number of Roland Garros titles and has won 13 times in his career. And Chris Evert has won the seven titles which is the highest on the women’s tour. The champions of the French Open 2020 are Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek. The Polish youngster Swiatek became the first singles Grand Slam winner from her country. She was dominant throughout the event.

Nadal defeated great rival Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the final.

Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - Poland's Iga Swiatek kisses the trophy as she celebrates after winning the French Open. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

French Open 2020 Schedule:

The Roland-Garros 2020 main draw matches started on 27th September and concluded on 11th October. This year's French Open saw night matches as well along with the day session. Matches began at the usual timing of 11 am local time (5 AM Eastern Time).

As the matches were played under lights in the 2020 edition and Court Philippe-Chatrier had a roof, many matches went late in the night and were also played despite the rain.

One of the matches, between Nadal and Jannik Sinner in the men's singles quarter-final, ended just a few minutes before 1.30 am.

French Open Winners List (ATP) Over The Past 16 Years:

Gaston Gaudia	2004
Rafael Nadal	2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Roger Federer	2009
Stan Wawrinka	2015
Novak Djokovic	2016

French Open Winners List (WTA) Over The Past 16 Years:

Justine Henin-Hardenne	2005, 2006, 2007
Ana Ivanovic	2008
Svetlana Kuznetsova	2009
Francesca Schiavone	2010
Li Na	2011
Maria Sharapova	2012, 2014
Serena Williams	2013, 2015
Garbine Muguruza	2016
Jeļena Ostapenko	2017
Simona Halep	2018
Ashleigh Barty	2019
Iga Swiatek	2020