As we begin to gear up for the spring months, that means the arrival of some of the most exciting sporting events of the calendar year. The NCAA Tournament is in full swing, the upcoming Major League Baseball regular season is only a couple of weeks away, the basketball and hockey playoffs are drawing closer and closer. And come late May, it will be time to commence the second of four Grand Slam tennis events, that being this year’s French Open.
As expected, tickets for the 2015 slate are already in high demand even two months in advance. According to Championship Tennis Tours, the cheapest French Open tickets available are currently $195 for grounds passes to the Men’s and Women’s 2nd round on Thursday, May 28th. All other opening rounds tickets have ground passes available for $245, though Center Court tickets begin at $425 for the cheapest opening rounds session.
The highest priced tickets are at the Suzanne Lenglen Court on June 2nd and June 3rd for the Men’s and Women’s quarterfinals. Currently, it will cost you a minimum of $795 for Tuesday June 2nd and $775 for Wednesday June 3rd. Men’s Finals tickets at Championship Tennis Tours start at $745, though the Women’s Finals are much cheaper at just $325 per ticket. As the event approaches, those prices may go up even further, as everyone jockeys for what will be one of the hottest tickets in sports preceding the summer.
Being contested in Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, its annual home, the French Open is the only one of the major tennis tournaments to be played on clay. It’s a trademark of the event that makes it so dynamic, as it forces players to alter their skill sets, considering how much a clay court can slow the ball down and produce a considerably different bounce compared to that of grass or hard courts.
In the 2014 event, Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic to win the men’s singles championship in one of the more anticipated finals matchups in recent memory -- not just because of how star-studded it was but also because Nadal and Djokovic were neck-and-neck for tennis’s No. 1 seed in the world. Nadal’s victory helped him maintain his top ranking over the rest of the competition, winning by a score of 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, and 6-4. In addition, the victory was his ninth career French Open win, and fifth consecutive, giving him the record for most championships and most consecutive titles at the French Open.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova defeated Simona Halep for the women’s singles crown a year ago, 6-4, 6-7 (5), and 6-4, for her second French Open championship. For the doubles portion of the tournament, Julien Benneteau and Édouard Roger-Vasselin captured the men’s championship, while Hsieh Su-wei and China Peng Shuai took home the title in the women’s division.
The French Open began in 1891 with the stadium and tournament nicknamed after French aviator Roland Garros. It is tennis’ third longest-running event, behind only Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
