By NormaK
If you love tennis and would love the chance to step onto Centre Court, then taking a Behind the Scenes tour with Globe Bleu is the way to go. For an hour and half with your own personal guide discover Roland Garros from the players’ side.
Your guide will explain to you the history of Roland Garros and share some amazing trivia. Did you know that if a player refuses to give an interview after a match they can be fined! André Agassi was penalized to the tune of $25,000 once because he refused to give an interview after losing a match!
During this exclusive tour, you will have the opportunity to visit press rooms, the men’s or women’s locker rooms and the interview room. It’s fun – we all got a turn to sit in the interview seat and have our photos taken!
Our guide told us a little anecdote about Steffi Graff. Apparently the top 10 players each year get to choose which locker they want and for good luck or superstition many pick the same one time after time. Steffi Graff’s favourite was No 19 so after her final match at Roland Garros the French Tennis Federation presented her with the actual locker door and in her honour replaced it with the number 18bis.
From the locker rooms you’ll along the same corridor and up the same steps and then out onto centre court just as the players do.
Also part of the visit is the Roland Garros museum. The museum’s permanent collection is a bilingual multimedia exhibition showing movie archives from 1897 to today.
There are summaries of games, exclusive interviews with French Open Champions and collections of old programs, tickets and racquets dating from the late 1800s.
You’ll get to see the original jacket worn by Henri Lacoste with the famous stitched crocodile logo.
This was definitely worth a visit – as a tennis buff, I had a lot of fun!