Catsuits and Roger: Here’s your primer

The 2019 French Open starts Sunday at 3 a.m. Mountain time and is set to conclude on June 9. Here’s the answer to a few big questions about the year’s second Grand Slam. Garros Stadium. “Roland Garros” is actually the name the tournament itself uses, and what most non-English speakers call the event. The site is undergoing massive renovations and expansion (from 850 acres to 1,250 acres), which will include the debut of a new, 5,000-seat arena called Court Simonne-Mathieu, named for the former French Open singles champion.

The French Open will be broadcast on NBC and the Tennis Channel. is a favorite in any tournament she enters, but there’s a lot of uncertainty this time around. Her withdrawal from the Italian Open last week due to pain in her left knee was the third consecutive tournament she pulled out of after completing just one match, and the second one she pulled out of due to the knee injury. Ranked No. 10 in the world, the 37-yearold has played just nine matches this season — and just one on clay since last year’s French Open. Slam champion is making his return to Roland Garros for the first time since 2015. Federer appears to be in fine clay-court form. The 37-year-old reached the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open this month in his first clay-court tournament in three years. Nadal, is looking for a record-extending 12th French Open title after finding his form at the Italian Open last week, where he beat Novak Djokovic in the final, to collect his first title since August. Djokovic could become the first man since 1968 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once for a second time (he previously did spanning 2015 and ’16).

Federer is a favorite, as always, and there are a few youngsters in the mix. Greece’s Stefanos Tistsipas could make a splash, as could Austria’s Dominic Thiem.

Aside from Williams, a perennial favorite, the reigning U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka will enter a Grand Slam as the top seed for the first time Sunday, with a slew of possible champions lining up behind her. Simona Halep will try to defend her first career major title, which she won last year in Paris, and past U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens could be dangerous. things in tennis, the answer is that it’s tradition. Roland Garros’ website says the surface began as a practical consideration, as crushed terra cotta clay was used to cover grass courts that were wilting in the heat. be a repeat of Serena Williams’ infamous catsuit outfit of 2018. After Williams wore the Nike-designed, Wakanda-influenced black suit at Roland Garros, French Tennis Federation President Bernard Giudicelli told Tennis Magazine that the tournament would be introducing a dress code. “It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place,” Giudicelli said.