The French Open came to an end at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris at the weekend with victory for Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal. But who was Roland Garros and why is his name forever linked with tennis?
In the spring of 1918 Charles de Gaulle, who would one day be the French President and arguably the most famous Frenchman of the 20th century, was in a prisoner of war camp in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
DeGaulle, who had been captured in the Battle of Verdun, found himself alongside another French hero — Roland Garros.
Garros was an airman, one of the first to take to the skies over the trenches of northern france to fight it out with “the Boche”.
He had been captured in 1915 after a blocked fuel line forced him to crash land over enemy territory. In May 1918 DeGaulle escaped from Ingolstadt but was recaptured near the Swiss border. Garros was more successful, escaping in February 1918.
He made it back to France, rejoined the air force and was shot down and killed only month before the end of the war.
But Garros had never been a keen tennis player, nor a fan, so it might seem odd that his name is now forever associated with the sport.
French tennis players — most notably Suzanne Lenglen, Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste — dominated the sport in the 1920s and the stadium in the 16th arrondissement was built to cash in on their popularity with the crowds.
But…
