Roland Garros to get makeover

Associated Press

PARIS

The French Tennis Federation voted to keep the French Open at its traditional Roland Garros venue and renovate the existing site by making it considerably larger, more attractive and modern, rather than moving it elsewhere.

Three other venues were bidding to host the clay-court Grand Slam tournament by 2016.

The proposed new sites at Versailles, close to the hugely popular Versailles palace, and in the suburbs at Gonesse and Marne-La-Vallee were much more expensive because they would have required building from scratch.

The FFT said Sunday that it had chosen the option of renovating Roland Garros, located in western Paris for more than 80 years, by making it 60 percent bigger while preserving its “unique history.”

“The Federation decided to stay on its original site at Porte d’Auteuil,” the FFT said Sunday. “It chose an ambitious, prestigious project resolutely looking to the future.”

The new-look Roland Garros will feature 35 outside courts, a new press center and a center court with a retractable roof so that matches could go ahead when it’s raining, and where night sessions could be played.

“Our ambition was to offer a project with a real future and of a very high quality,” FFT president Jean Gachassin said. “To improve the reception and the comfort of the players and spectators.”

Kim Clijsters, who will become the No. 1 player in the world on Monday, welcomed the news.

“I would have thought that it was sad to see it go away from the place where I know [the French Open] should be. ... It has a lot of great memories for me even as a junior,” Clijsters said.

But former top-ranked player Amelie Mauresmo, now director of the Open Gaz de France tournament, thinks it should have moved.

“I hope they [the French Federation of Tennis] won’t get in trouble by taking this decision,” Mauresmo said. “I don’t know if the tennis aspect prevailed in that decision.”