Sharda Ugra

2 weeks ago | hindustantimes.com | Sharda Ugra

One of the many factors that made the Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner Roland Garros final remarkable was its duration: 5h29m. Before Sunday, the longest French Open final was 4h24min, Mats Wilander v Guillermo Vilas, an hour and five minutes shorter. Rafa’s longest final lasted 3h49m vs Novak Djokovic in 2012, his longest match at the venue 4h 53m, vs Paul Henri Mathieu, fourth round 2006.

2 weeks ago | hindustantimes.com | Sharda Ugra

You know what they’re calling it? Alcaraz versus Sinner and their 5h29m? This longest French Open final over the last 100 years of the event’s international competition? At the end of Sunday’s nerve-shredding, head-clutching, soaring mind-bender of a men’s singles final, it has been placed by many as among its top five or six. There’s apparently lists being made of TopWhatever Grand Slam GOAT finals, with fierce debates on Alcaraz-Sinner’s inclusion or exclusion there.

2 weeks ago | htsyndication.com | Sharda Ugra

Paris, June 9 -- It takes less than 50 minutes to amble around Roland Garros and explore all its many parts and every single corner. The pace, even if a tick short of glacial, takes in the courts, big and small and can reach the smallest nooks and crannies. Like behind the Court Simonne Mathieu sunk into the earth and enveloped by botanical gardens is a patch of undulating lawn that has deck chairs, people napping under bushes next to a large screen and kids' activities.

2 weeks ago | hindustantimes.com | Sharda Ugra

Any first-timer can be swept away by the effortless understatement of it all. Roland Garros’ show courts -- the intimate Suzanne Langlen, the steel, glass and wood of Chatrier and the bijou Simonne Mathieu -- punctuate the landscape but they do not overwhelm it. There’s activity, people rushing about, food and drink dished out, money being spent and earned but at Roland Garros, there always seems room to breathe.

3 weeks ago | hindustantimes.com | Sharda Ugra

The Philippe Chatrier, a steely colosseum of right angles outside is anything but steely inside. Fifteen thousand people are losing their minds. Roland Garros 2025’s last surviving French player — a wild card ranked world no. 361 about whom there is still no information on her player page (neither place of birth, height, weight, playing style or name of coach) had just knocked out her second-successive seeded player. If it was no.