The French Open: A special tournament

The French Open was first held in 1891, when it was only open to members of French tennis clubs. At first the tournament was played on a number of different surfaces and at different locations, including at the Bois de Bologne in the west end of Paris. The current facility, named after French aviator Roland Garros, was constructed in 1928.

In 1925, the tournament was opened up to players who didn't belong to French clubs, but it wasn't until 1933 that a foreigner won the title. Australian Jack Crawford beat five-time champion Henri Clochet. Crawford, though, wasn't the first foreigner to win the title, as H. Briggs (his first name is not known), a Briton, who resided in Paris, won the first tournament in 1891.

German players had much success at Roland Garros in the 1930s. Baron Gottfried von Cramm (pictured above) won on the men's side in 1934 and 1936, while Henner Henkel won in 1937. Cilly Aussem won the women's tournament in 1931 while Hilde Sperling took the trophy three years running, from 1935 through 1937.

Sweden's Bjorn Borg (above left) was the dominant player of his era and he won the French Open all but two years between 1974 and 1981. He was just 18 when he won his first title at Roland Garros and was still just 25 when he won his last French Open, beating Ivan Lendl (right) in the final. He retired from tennis at the tender age of 26.

In 1989, Ivan Lendl was in the final again, this time against 17-year-old American Michael Chang. The two battled it out over five sets, and Chang in particular suffered from cramps and fatigue. Eventually, the American was so tired that he began serving underhand. However, he still overcame the 29-year-old from Czechoslovakia to become the youngest Grand Slam winner ever.

Bjorn Borg's record of six men's French Open titles stood until the following millenium. Rafael Nadal pulled level with his win in 2011, before passing Borg with his seventh in 2012 (pictured above). The Spanish player now has a total of nine singles titles to his name, having also won the 2013 and 2014 tournaments.

For several years beginning in the late 1980s, Germany's serve-and-volley specialist, Boris Becker, won just about every grass-court tournament going. However, he had no luck at Roland Garros, only reaching the semifinals on three occasions, 1987, 1989, and 1991. In fact, during his 15 years as a professional, Becker never won a single tournament on clay.

French tennis fans have been waiting for one of their own to win the title at Roland Garros for more than three decades. The last Frenchman to do so was Yannick Noah, who beat the previous champion, Mats Wilander of Sweden, in the 1983 final. The last Frenchman to make it to the final was Henri Leconte in 1988.

The roaring 20s were a much better era for French fans, who watched Suzanne Leglen dominate on the women's side, winning the singles on six of seven tries between 1920 and 1926. Leglen, whose graceful style made her one of the world's biggest tennis stars, won a total of 25 Grand Slam titles. In the summer of 1938 she was diagnosed with leukemia and died a few weeks later at the age of 39.

Chris Evert-Lloyd (above, right), won seven titles between 1974 and 1986, often meeting her biggest rival, Martina Navratilova (left) in the final. Evert-Lloyd beat Navratilova for the first time when she won the 1975 title. Between 1984 and 1986 they met in the final three consecutive times, with Evert-Lloyd winning twice.

This was followed by the period of dominance by Steffi Graf. The German made it to the final at Roland Garros nine times between 1987 and 1999 - winning the title six times. Her biggest final was in 1988, when she beat Natasha Zvereva of the Soviet Union 6-0, 6-0 in just 32 minutes. Her last French Open title came against the then-women's world No. 1, Martina Hingis of Switzerland, in 1999.

Center court, named after former tennis player Philippe Chartrier, has a capacity of 15,000, while next door, the Suzanne Lenglen court can hold up to 10,000. None of the stadiums at Roland Garros has a roof, meaning it can get really hot when the weather is good, or really unpleasant if it rains.

This also means that hardly a French Open goes by without rain delaying proceedings at some point or other. When this happens, the spectators can only put up their umbrellas, while the surface is covered with a tarp. There are plans for the main courts to get roofs - but not until 2020.