The only Grand Slam played on clay, and the one that most rewards endurance: the surface slows the ball, rallies run long, and matches on Philippe-Chatrier can pass four hours. The site at Porte d'Auteuil has been rebuilt around the Serres d'Auteuil botanical greenhouses, with a retractable roof over the main court since 2020 and a second show court, Simonne-Mathieu, sunk among the glasshouses.
The tournament dates to 1891 as a national championship and took its present name and site in 1928, built to defend the Davis Cup the French had just won.
The Federation reported 727,000 visitors across the 2026 fortnight — a turnstile figure covering the grounds, including spectators who never enter a show court.
Show-court tickets are allocated by ballot, opened the previous autumn, with a resale platform afterwards. Grounds passes for the first week give access to the outside courts and are the better value by a distance: the early rounds put serious players on courts where the crowd is a few hundred.
PlanningSeasonal window bridging late May and early June; the ballot for show-court seats opens the previous autumn.