What’s new at Roland Garros

Much has changed at Roland Garros since 2008, so here is a summary from the French Tennis Federation (FFT) of what you can expect when the 79th French Open gets under way in the last week in May. Under new management 2009 marks a new era for the French Open as it will be under the auspices of Jean Gachassin, who was elected president of the FFT on 8 February 2009, and Gilbert Ysern, the new tournament director who was promoted to the position of director general of the FFT on 4 April. Unveiling of the new stadium model The winning project in the international architecture competition to design the new Roland Garros stadium at the adjoining Georges Hébert site will be announced on Tuesday 2 June at 11 am at the Tenniseum museum at Roland Garros. Some 91 applications were received and the field has since been narrowed down to entries from four highly renowned contemporary architects: - Paul Andreu, who designed the Osaka maritime museum in Japan, the Chinese National Grand Theatre in Beijing and the Canton Multisport Complex, again in China; - Marc Mimram, who was behind the Beng Bu Bridge at Tianjin (China) and the Léopold Sédar Senghor walk-way (at the former Solférino site) in Paris; - Renzo Piano, who designed the Georges Pompidou National Art and Culture Centre in Paris, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and Osaka airport in Japan, and - Christian de Portzamparc, who was responsible for the LVMH tower in New York, the Lille tower in the Euralille business area (France), the "Philharmonie" concert hall in Luxembourg, the re-design of the Paris congress centre and the headquarters of Le Monde newspaper, also in the French capital. The Tenniseum will also launch an exhibition showing all four projects, with the winner of course given pride of place. Slight increase in prize money Overall prize money at the 2009 French Open will be €16,150,460 – a 3.69% increase on 2008 figures (€15,575,960). The winners of the men’s and women’s singles will each bank €1,060,000, while those who fall at the first hurdle will still take home €15,000. Parity between the men’s and women’s purses has been the case at Roland Garros since 2007 and is the result of a long-term effort carried out by the FFT. Prize money for the doubles tournaments has been significantly improved, particularly the mixed doubles (+ 24.66% compared with 2008), and as was already the case last year, the wheelchair tournaments are also receiving a healthy increase of 17% compared with 2008. Legendary line-up for the Legends Trophy From 3-7 June, the Legends Trophy will bring together a star-studded line-up of former champions to take part in two doubles competitions. Some 24 of the game’s top names, including six former world No1s, will be slugging it out and bringing 38 Grand Slam titles’ worth of experience to the courts. This is the 12th year that the trophy is being held and will see the debuts of Thomas Muster and Yevgeny Kafelnikov who won the French Open in 1995 and 1996 respectively. Other stars from the past include Yannick Noah, Cédric Pioline, Goran Ivanisevic, Pat Cash, Boris Becker, Sergi Bruguera, Ilie Nastase, Guillermo Vilas, Guy Forget, Michaël Pernfors, Mats Wilander and Mansour Bahrami.