1996

Highlights of the tournament

Yevgeny Kafelnikov becomes the first Russian player to win a Grand Slam title, and while he is at it, he does the double of singles and doubles titles which had not been achieved at Roland Garros since Ken Rosewall in 1968.

The final between Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez goes to 40 games, making it the longest (in games) in the history of the women’s singles at Roland-Garros. The German wins it 6-3, 6-7, 10-8 for her fifth title at the Porte d’Auteuil, putting her within touching distance of USA’s Chris Evert’s seven. Amélie Mauresmo wins the girl’s singles. 

The attendance record across the fortnight is beaten once again with a total of 363,405 spectators coming through the gates in 1996. Another record to fall (though it has since been beaten) is the most spectators in one day: 33,583 tickets are sold for Wednesday 29 May. 

The official Roland Garros website (www.rolandgarros.com) also begins to spin its web.