The French Tennis Internationals have a century, three years older than Roland-Garros-Liberation
With Retonewsthe BNF press site, back on a sports story as told by the press of the time.
How old are the international tennis internationals? 100 years battery. A centenary completely passed to the AS (at the ACE). Not the trace of a commemoration on the occasion of this edition. Would the French Tennis Federation have found the vaccine against acute commemorativitis, particularly virulent in the sporting sphere And generally incurable when it comes to celebrating a century? What is the original sin of this 1925 edition? Perhaps that of not taking place at the Roland-Garros stadium. And for good reason, it was not yet built and has only welcomed the internationals of France since 1928. We bet that this centenary will be celebrated with dignity.
So where are the first bullets of the internationals of France,? Not far from Roland-Garros, in Saint-Cloud, on the other side of the Seine. The French Federation of Lawn-Vennis (as we said at the time) has existed for five years, but it is not she who organizes the event. “Tomorrow Wednesday, the international clay tennis championships will start, organized by the Racing Club de France and the Stade Français, tell the newspaper May 27. The various events will take place on the stadium field, in the Saint-Cloud park. This tournament, which is the world tennis championship, promises to be a big success. ”
In the beginning was the French International Tennis Championship, born in 1891, played on lawn (the famous Lawn). A competition that has international only the name, since only French or licensed players in France can participate. This allows the development of a competing competition, the world championships on clay, disputed between 1912 and 1923 and organized this time by the International Lawn Tennis Federation. In 1924, the Paris Olympics eclipsed the event. In 1925, the French championship finally loosened its corset. « For the first time they are open to foreigners, underlines The newspaper. So this beautiful international competition brought together for its first edition a magnificent lot of champions. ” The internationals of France were born.
The Racing Club of France and the Stade Français, the clubs in charge of the organization, did not play a little arm. The recall of May 27 is admiring: “This great event which is one of the biggest sporting events of the season promises to be a huge success. By mutual agreement, the two major clubs have decided, in order to avoid refusing places and in order to ensure more comfort for the thousands of spectators who follow with so much attendance this beautiful sporty game, to raise enormous and comfortable stands on the field of the Fais store which can contain all those who are passionate about the beautiful sport of Lawn-Tennis. «
May 4, freedom already told the efforts of the two organizing clubs. “From an organizational point of view, we will certainly be spoiled, because the leaders of the stadium and Racing estimated that the old stands of Saint-Cloud had lived. They were therefore transformed into burning wood, we deported the large central court to enlarge the place intended for the stands and, in a fortnight, will rise on this site four immense stands, wonderfully decorated, which will be able to contain more than 5,000 spectators. ” Which will be able to discover the first internationals of internationals. “The organizers have ensured the participation of the official teams trained by the respective federations of the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland and Romania, continues the daily. So this is a great event which is one of the biggest sporting events of the season. Soon, we will have the opportunity to talk about competitors, because we see the famous champions who distinguished themselves during the Olympic Games on the horizon. ”
The future May 26 puts names on these « Famous champions » :: “A large number of the most famous rackets are registered, including the French Lacoste, Borotra; Belgian Wesher; The Indous (sic) fyse, Jacob; The English Spence, Croy, Rees, Eames. The ladies category has brought together a large number of celebrities, including Miss Suzanne Lenglen and Miss Mac Kane, etc. ”
The Faisanderie courts will welcome no less than 14 games on the first day. If the organization is private, the public authorities do not snub the event. The future recall « That a coach service organized by the Public Transport Company of the Paris region will leave every day from 1 p.m. from the Place de la République via the Opera, Madeleine, Etoile Porte de Saint-Cloud. »
The tournament delights an audience of connoisseurs underlines L’Echo de Paris June 1, 1925. « It was yesterday, in Saint-Cloud, the crowd of the great days, and an enthusiastic, sporting, documented crowd, because it is mostly composed of current or ancient practitioners of this pretty game. Noted the presence of innumerable British and a lot of South Americans »enthuses the newspaper, which puts a trio of players in majesty, the French Suzanne Lenglen, the British Kathleen Mac Kane and The American Helen Wills.
We find Suzanne Lenglen, nicknamed « La Divine », the first international star of female tennis, in photo in Paris night June 8, 1925. She is close to René Lacoste. The two won the single and double tournament. Lenglen completes his triumph with the title in a mixed double.
Grand Chelem des Tricolores at home for the first internationals in France, France of Bordeaux and Southwest From June 13, there is any sketch. “Vainly, we would try to alleviate what this result has glorious for ourselves. Taking into account the fact that some very good players from different countries refrained to take part in the Saint-Cloud tournament, we must hold for some that it proved the superiority of France at least from a European point of view. (…) Only, the presence of the big “AS” Americans and Australians had been able to make the tournament record was different from the one we saw. Still, this is not quite certain, Cocoricot the newspaper. We have in Lacoste a champion of the great international class and who, after all, seems very capable of dethroning, some day for his benefit, this half-god of tennis that is WT Tilden (1). (…) We cannot ignore the magnificent back to school made by Miss Suzanne Lenglen. I no longer know very exactly what historical personality it was said that on her the other principles seemed to be a people, but what I know very well is that we can say something similar by speaking of our national Suzanne. ”
And Roland Garros in all of this? History does not tell us if the aviator has ever touched a tennis racket, he was rather rugby or football. In any case not in competition, whether national or international. His crossing of the Mediterranean in 1913 brought him celebrity – Jean Cocteau will even dedicate him to a poem. When he died, October 5, 1918the day before his 30th anniversary, just over a month before the armistice, it is the war hero that we cry. Engaged from the start of the First World War, he revolutionized air combat by developing the machine gun through the propeller. On April 18, 1915, hit by the opponent’s DCA, he was forced to land behind the enemy lines, the Germans captured it. On February 15, 1918, he managed to escape. Not a thin feat.
Back in France, Clemenceau wants to make him an aviation advisor to the General Staff, but Roland Garros wants to go back to combat. He hides his myopia, of terror which is prohibited from taking up the handle. During his permissions, the fantastic aviator, heroic war pilot, becomes a classic pianist again. Roland Garros crosses Isadora Duncan. The immense American dancer will tell in his autobiography that he danted for him in Concorde, a evening of air alert. « Shortly after, the angel of the heroes seized it and transported it elsewhere« Cries the dancer. Roland Garros loses his last air fight.
In 1927, we are nine years after the death of the man « Who had enslaved the space to his relentless will », then wrote The Little Journal. The musketeers of French tennis (René Lacoste, Jacques Brugnon, Jean BorotraHenri Cochet, the four men present two years earlier on the courts of the Faisanderie in the final of the double of the first internationals in France) succeed The incredible feat to tear the Davis Cup from Americans winners of the last seven editions at home. For revenge, a year later, it takes an enclosure worthy of the event. It will be erected in the west of Paris on a land conceded at the Stade Français and Racing, after a doubtful deal with the State denounces the press. Never mind. The managers of the Stade Français, of which Roland Garros were a member, demand that the stadium bears the name of their hero. This is how the internationals of France became Roland-Garros.
