Yesterday I came back from Roland Garros.
Last Friday, I left Frankfurt at 6 in the morning and arrived in Paris four hours later.
After dropping my bag at the hotel, I went straight to the tournament grounds.
It was one of the hottest days of the year. More than 32°C.
I had barely slept, I was tired from the trip, and yet the moment I walked through the gates of Roland Garros, none of that seemed to matter.
The practice courts were full.
Fans were moving between matches.
The outside courts were packed.
And everywhere you looked, people shared the same feeling: they were exactly where they wanted to be.
I spent the day moving between Court 14, Suzanne Lenglen and Simonne Mathieu.
Watching long rallies.
Five-set battles.
Players fighting for every point under the Paris sun.
At one point I was so exhausted that I found a quiet spot near Simonne Mathieu and closed my eyes for half an hour.
Then I got up and went back to watch more tennis.
And somewhere during that day, sitting in the stands and watching another long clay-court battle, I was reminded why Roland Garros is still my favorite tournament in the world.
Not because of the trophies.
Not because of the champions.
But because of the atmosphere.
The effort.
The patience.
The feeling that every point has to be earned.
That feeling is one of the reasons I started creating the Roland Garros poster collection.
Trying to capture a small part of what makes this tournament so special.
If you’d like to see it, you can explore the collection here:
Talk soon,
Martin “ACES” Moncayo
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