Roland Garros: Looking Back

The Entrance to Stade Roland Garros 1927. The best way to fully appreciate the magical, almost mythical, history of Stade Roland Garros is by looking back and taking select snippets from the past, beginning with the facility's construction and moving through the decades until it staged the inaugural Grand Slam of the Open Era. Going into the 1927 Lawn Tennis Challenge Round, as the Davis Cup final was called in those days, France was seeking its initial victory when it faced the United States on the grass courts at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 8-10. Having won but one match in its two previous Challenge Round appearances against the US--a one-sided 5-0 defeat in 1925 and a 4-1 follow-up embarrassment the next year--France was an underdog. French Upset On the final day of play and trailing 2-1, it was assumed that the US would win one or both of the two remaining singles matches. France had other ideas and swept back-to-back four set contests. The victory ended the US record setting seven-year Cup reign but more important, it enabled France, the country which joined the annual competition in 1904, to claim the game's foremost trophy for...