The court builders have been at work on the resurfacing of the Linwood tennis courts. The asphalt surface has been put down and leveled, and the big machines are gone. I have been checking on the work in progress and have yet to see anyone actually working at the site, but there is visual evidence that they have been on the job. I suspect that they may sneak onto the site late at night so that no one sees them make progress. There is still a lot of work to do until the courts are playable. Stay tuned.
Roland Garros was a French aviator who was shot down in combat in World War I one day short of his thirtieth birthday, on October 5, 1918. He was credited with shooting down three enemy (German) planes. He was a noted aviator before the war, but wasn't known as a tennis player. He was, however, a religious fan of the game. The stadium where the French Open is played was named for him in the 1920's. In 1913 he became the first man to fly across the Mediterranean Sea.
A link to the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris.
3 comments:
90's? That's a heat wave. What happened to the 70's?
Progress on the local tennis court should go faster than Gino's progress in the cornfield, or at least I hope so. An interesting series for photos.
From the history section of the official website for the 2008 French Open: 1927 was a milestone for French tennis, the year the celebrated French Musketeers (Jacques "Toto" Brugnon, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste)upset the USA to win the Davis Cup on American soil. At that time the finals were always hosted by the Cup holders so the finals in 1928 were to be held in Paris. It was decided to build a new stadium for the 1928 defense of the Cup. The primary Parisian football club of the time, Stade Français, handed over three hectares of land near Porte d'Auteuil to the French Tennis Federation. The only condition to the offer of land was that the new stadium should bear the name of one of Stade Français' most renowned former members, Roland-Garros, who had died some ten years earlier. Roland-Garros was an aviation pioneer who, on 23 September 1913, had become the first man to fly a plane over the Mediterranean. The 1928 French Internationals (aka French Open) were the first event to be held in the new stadium, just before the Musketeers took centre-stage to beat the Americans in the 1928 Davis Cup rematch.
Gino: Nice piece of history and more than I knew. I bet there is a book out there about this guy. TT
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