Roland Garros. The mere name evokes images of sweat-soaked players with clay-encrusted socks battling it out for supremacy in the heat of the Paris sun.

To be seen at Roland Garros is to be cool, however, regardless of the weather. The venue for the French Open may divide players' opinions, but in terms of the tennis fans' annual social calendar it is rivalled only by Wimbledon.

Roland Garros has hosted the French Open since 1928, although when the tournament was first held in 1891 it was played on grass.

These days the French Open is staged in late May and early June, and is the second Grand Slam tournament of the season, being staged after the Australian Open, but ahead of Wimbledon and the US Open.

The tournament was the first to go 'open' in 1968, allowing both amateur and professional players to compete against each other, and it is also regarded by most players as the most physically demanding of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Unsurprisingly, only four men's players have managed to achieve the 'double' of French Open and Wimbledon crowns, such is the differing nature of the surfaces involved. The four to do so up to 2008 were Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal.