Discover the official poster for the 2023 Roland-Garros tournament!

Every year since 1980, the French Tennis Federation has invited an artist to design the official Roland-Garros tournament poster. This year, that honour has gone to young Frenchman Maxime Verdier, who has produced the event’s 44th such image. 

Land of stars

Exuding an almost poetic feel and entitled Terre d'étoiles (Land of Stars), the poster is the first to be drawn entirely in coloured pencil, which further enhances its mellow, dreamlike aura. The artist, through this work, was keen to represent the tournament's reach and standing by giving pride of place to the new Court Philippe-Chatrier, bathed in a halo of light under a night sky sprinkled with tennis ball stars. He also wanted to leave a lot of room for imagination, to enable all tennis fans to make this poster their own.

“When I was asked to create this poster, a memory came back to me,” said Verdier. “I had a friend at school who played a lot of tennis and often watched Roland-Garros. I didn’t play tennis, but he shared his passion with me. It was at that point that I started to take an interest, to discover Nadal and Federer. What was wonderful was the starry-eyed look he had when he talked about those players. That was my first inspiration. 

“When I visited the stadium, I also became fully aware of the passion that people who watch tennis have. It’s lovely to see. It seems to me that there aren’t many sport lovers out there as enthusiastic as tennis fans. When I did this poster, I was mainly thinking about children in tennis clubs, and encouraging them to want to go further in their sport.”

All dreams are possible

From the young girl dreaming of Roland-Garros from the clay court where she trains with her club, to the tournament player dreaming of holding aloft the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup and the junior competitor fantasising about playing on Court Philippe-Chatrier, everyone can relate to this poster. Let the magic speak and your expressions express themselves – it's up to you to write the story that inspires you the most by letting your imagination run wild!

Maxime Verdier bio

Maxime Verdier, a French artist born in Dieppe in 1991, spent his entire childhood in Normandy. After obtaining a literary baccalauréat, he enrolled at the Le Havre-Rouen School of Art and Design, from which he graduated in 2015, and then at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. He graduated from the latter with first class honours in 2017.

After rising to prominence at the 64th Salon de Montrouge in 2019, Verdier has since participated in numerous group exhibitions in France. In 2021, he became a resident artist at the Drawing Factory in Paris. 

He lives in Paris and works in a community studio in Gennevilliers. His work is the embodiment of, via sculptures and drawings, a range of childhood memories, emotions, and events that are both significant and anecdotal. His creations are brimming with nuance, between the marvellous and the bizarre, like the most magical and fantastic stories.