Courts Stade Roland-Garros, Paris
How Many Courts Does Roland Garros Have? A Guide to Every Court
Eighteen red clay courts fit into the corner of western Paris where the French Open is played: 3 show courts named after French tennis greats, a sunken bowl called Court 14 and a ring of outside courts where the walls are close enough to touch.
- Clay courts
- 18used for the tournament
- Show courts
- 3Chatrier, Lenglen and Simonne-Mathieu
- Roofed courts
- 2Chatrier and Lenglen
Photo: TwoWings, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons
The count
How many courts does Roland Garros have?
In shortRoland Garros has 18 clay courts for the tournament: three show courts, Philippe-Chatrier, Suzanne-Lenglen and Simonne-Mathieu, and the outside courts. Two of the show courts have retractable roofs.
The usual answer is 18. That is the number of clay courts the Olympic venue guide gave when Stade Roland-Garros hosted tennis at the 2024 Paris Games, and it covers every court used for matches. The stadium's own venue pages describe it in two parts: the three show courts and 14 outside courts set up around them. Counts you find elsewhere run higher, because they add training courts used outside the tournament.
It is a compact site by Grand Slam standards, and the expansion of the last decade has had to squeeze into it, with one show court half sunk into a botanical garden, another court half sunk into the ground at the far end.
All of the Roland Garros courts are red clay, the only Grand Slam surface of its kind. For how clay compares with grass and hard courts, see our guide to tennis court surfaces.
Court names
Roland Garros court names: who Chatrier, Lenglen and Mathieu were
In shortThe three show courts carry the names of French tennis figures: Philippe Chatrier, who ran French and world tennis; Suzanne Lenglen, the great champion of the 1920s; and Simonne Mathieu, a two-time champion and a wartime officer of the Free French.
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15,000seats
Court Philippe-Chatrier
Tennis administrator
Named in 2001 for the man a former ITF president called the father of international tennis. Chatrier pushed tennis back into the Olympics; it returned as a medal sport in 1988.
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10,000+seats
Court Suzanne-Lenglen
Champion of the 1920s
Lenglen won a combined 21 major titles in singles, doubles and mixed at the French Championships and Wimbledon, and filled stands on clay and grass alike.
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5,000seats
Court Simonne-Mathieu
Champion and Free French officer
Mathieu won the French title in 1938 and 1939. In 1940 she persuaded General de Gaulle to create a women’s corps of the Free French forces and ended the war a captain.
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2,200seats
Court 14
Numbered, not named
Opened in 2018, half below ground. The venue calls it a gladiator’s arena, because the front rows sit almost on the court.
The stadium itself has a name with no tennis in it. Roland Garros was a French aviation pioneer who made the first flight across the Mediterranean, from Frejus to Bizerte, on September 23, 1913. The tournament is officially the French Open, but in French and increasingly in English, everyone calls it Roland Garros.
Court Philippe-Chatrier
Court Philippe-Chatrier, the main court
In shortChatrier is the main court at Roland Garros: 15,000 seats, opened in 1928, rebuilt with a retractable roof for 2020. Both singles finals are played there.
The center court of Roland Garros was inaugurated in 1928, a year after the Four Musketeers, René Lacoste, Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon, won the Davis Cup for France by beating the United States. France went on to win six straight Davis Cups between 1927 and 1932, and the stadium was built for exactly that kind of crowd. The gardens beside the court are still called the Mousquetaires Gardens.
The modern court is a bowl of 8,000 seats in the lower ring, including 230 boxes, and 7,000 in the upper. It was renovated for 2020, when the roof went on, and it was named after Philippe Chatrier in 2001.
Chatrier's story has a tennis twist worth knowing. In 1971 Arthur Ashe introduced him to an 11-year-old from Cameroon called Yannick Noah. Chatrier put the boy into the French development program, and twelve years later Noah won the French Open on this court. Rafael Nadal later won 14 titles here.
Court Suzanne-Lenglen
Court Suzanne-Lenglen, the second show court
In shortSuzanne-Lenglen holds a little over 10,000 spectators, opened in 1994 and has had a retractable roof since 2024. It closes in 15 minutes.
Lenglen is the court players and fans tend to describe by its atmosphere. Most of its seats are in the upper ring, 8,300 against 1,700 below, which makes it steep and loud. It opened in 1994, and from 2024 it has had its own retractable roof, which closes in 15 minutes.
Suzanne Lenglen, whose name it carries, was the first great box-office star of women's tennis, at a time when the French championships were still closed to foreign players. Her matches drew crowds at the French Championships and at Wimbledon alike, and she lost almost nothing in the first half of the 1920s.
Simonne-Mathieu and Court 14
Court Simonne-Mathieu and the sunken Court 14
In shortSimonne-Mathieu, opened in 2019, seats 5,000 inside the Auteuil greenhouse gardens. Court 14, from 2018, seats 2,200 and is half sunk into the ground at the other end of the site.
Court Simonne-Mathieu is the newest show court and the strangest. It sits in the heart of the Serres d'Auteuil, the Auteuil greenhouse gardens, built half below ground with tropical greenhouses set around its four stands. Its 5,000 seats are split almost evenly, 2,200 above and 2,800 below.
Simonne Mathieu was France's No. 1 player from 1928 to 1940 and won the French title in 1938 and 1939; in 1938 she took the singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Roland Garros in the same year. Her war record is the reason the court carries her name as much as her tennis. She helped found and served in the women's corps of the Free French forces.
Court 14 is the outside court with a reputation. Opened in 2018 at the opposite end of the grounds, in the extension known as the Fonds des Princes, it seats 2,200 in a sunken bowl. Ask regulars where to watch a tight first-round match and this is usually the answer.
Where to find them
Where the Roland Garros courts are
The courts on the map
Each link opens the place in a map in a new tab. Nothing from a map service loads on this page until you click.
- Stade Roland-GarrosThe whole site in the west of Paris: every court on this page. OpenStreetMapGoogle Maps
- Court Philippe-ChatrierThe main court, with the retractable roof. OpenStreetMapGoogle Maps
- Court Suzanne-LenglenThe second show court. OpenStreetMapGoogle Maps
- Court Simonne-MathieuThe newest show court, in the Serres d'Auteuil greenhouse gardens. OpenStreetMapGoogle Maps
Roofs and night sessions
Which Roland Garros courts have a roof?
In shortTwo, Philippe-Chatrier since 2020 and Suzanne-Lenglen since 2024. Together they shelter about 25,000 spectators, and Chatrier hosts the night sessions that began in 2021.
Paris in late May is not reliably dry, and for most of its history Roland Garros simply stopped when it rained. The Chatrier roof arrived for the 2020 tournament, and the Lenglen roof, inaugurated on May 26, 2024, followed four years later. The tournament puts the combined capacity of the two roofed courts at about 25,000 people.
The roof on Chatrier also made night tennis possible. Night sessions started in 2021, with one evening match a day on the main court. The outside courts still have no cover, so a wet afternoon in Paris moves the whole tournament onto two courts.
The clay
What the Roland Garros clay is made of
In shortThe courts are a layered build about 80 cm deep: a thin top coat of crushed red brick over crushed limestone, clinker and a thick bed of gravel above the drainage.
What looks like a court of red dirt is mostly white rock. About 80 cm deep: 1-2 mm of crushed brick on top, 6-7 cm of crushed limestone, 7-8 cm of clinker and at least 30 cm of gravel over drainage. The brick dust on top is only a millimeter or two thick, and it is the layer the ground staff brush, water and roll between matches, the scene that fills the gaps on television in the second week.
That build is why clay plays slow and high. The loose surface grips the ball, and the firm limestone underneath sends it back up. It is also why the French Open is the toughest of the four Grand Slams to win for players raised on hard courts, and why the same names repeat on its honor roll. For the tournament itself, from dates to prize money, see our Roland Garros guide.
FAQ
Roland Garros courts questions, answered
In shortShort answers to the questions people ask most about the courts of the French Open.
How many courts does Roland Garros have?
Stade Roland-Garros has 18 clay courts used for the tournament, the figure given in the Olympic venue guide for Paris 2024. They are the three show courts, Philippe-Chatrier, Suzanne-Lenglen and Simonne-Mathieu, plus the outside courts, among them the sunken Court 14.
What is the main court at Roland Garros called?
Court Philippe-Chatrier. It opened in 1928, took its current name in 2001 and was rebuilt with a retractable roof for 2020. It holds 15,000 spectators and hosts both singles finals.
How many seats does Court Suzanne-Lenglen have?
A little over 10,000. The stadium operator gives 8,300 seats in the upper ring and 1,700 in the lower. The court opened in 1994 and has had a retractable roof since 2024.
What are the Roland Garros court names?
The three show courts are named after French tennis figures: Philippe Chatrier, the administrator who led French and international tennis; Suzanne Lenglen, the star of the 1920s; and Simonne Mathieu, the 1938 and 1939 champion. The outside courts are numbered, Court 14 being the best known.
Do the Roland Garros courts have roofs?
Two do. Chatrier got its retractable roof in 2020 and Suzanne-Lenglen in 2024; the Lenglen roof closes in 15 minutes. Together the two roofed courts can shelter about 25,000 spectators.
Why is the French Open played on clay?
Clay is the identity of the tournament, since Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam played on it. Red clay is made of crushed brick over layers of limestone, clinker and gravel, and it gives the slowest, highest bounce of any Grand Slam surface.
What is Court 14 at Roland Garros?
A 2,200-seat outside court opened in 2018, built half below ground at the opposite end of the site from Simonne-Mathieu. The seats come right down to the court, and the venue itself calls it a gladiator's arena.
Why is the stadium called Roland Garros?
It is named after Roland Garros, the French aviation pioneer who made the first flight across the Mediterranean, from Frejus to Bizerte, on September 23, 1913. The tournament is officially the French Open, but almost everyone uses the stadium's name.