The "clay" isn't actually clay. The iconic red surface is made from crushed defective bricks — manufactured by the same supplier, Supersol, for the past fifty years — ground into dust. The red layer is just 2mm thick, sitting on top of limestone, clinker, crushed gravel, and large stones below. The French call it terre battue — beaten earth.

Human line-callers. The French Open is now the only Grand Slam tournament to use human line judges instead of electronic line calling technology. At the 2025 tournament, there were 404 referees present to judge the lines, with 284 from France alone.

The stadium is named after a man who didn’t play tennis! Roland Garros was a pioneering French pilot — the first person to complete a solo flight across the Mediterranean Sea, and the inventor of the first forward-firing aircraft machine gun — who died in aerial combat in 1918. The stadium was named after him in 1928 as a condition of the land grant from the Stade de France, which required the new venue to honor a WWI hero. He had nothing to do with tennis! 

The women's trophy is named after a player who won 31 majors. The Court Suzanne Lenglen — Roland-Garros's secondary stadium — is named after the first true superstar of women's tennis, who won 31 major titles, including six French Opens and six Wimbledons, between 1914 and 1926, and two Olympic gold medals. She was known as La Divine. She also essentially invented the concept of a female sports celebrity, wore shorter skirts, and was accompanied everywhere by her father. 

The 2025 men's final was the longest in tournament history. The 2025 French Open men's final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes — the longest final in the tournament's history — and was also the first time a 10-point super tiebreaker decided a singles final at Roland-Garros.