Trophee Jean-Luc Lagardere
- City:
- Paris, France
- Dates:
- September 23-26, 2010
- Venue:
- Lagardere Paris Racing Club
- Director:
- Guy Forget
- Surface:
- Clay
- Website:
- www.tropheejeanluclagardere.com
- 2009 Results
- tickets
The Bois de Boulogne, in which the Lagardere Racing club is situated, covers an area two and a half times the size of Central Park in New York, and three times the size of Hyde Park in London. It is one of the most beautiful settings anywhere on the ATP Champions Tour. The club itself is equipped with world-class facilities for tennis, athletics and swimming, and the tournament has an intimate appeal unlike any other on the Tour, with the fans sitting just a couple of metres away from their favourite stars.
In 2009, the tournament’s headline event was the long-awaited rematch between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang, two decades on from their legendary five-set final at Roland Garros. In 1989, a 17-year-old Chang was the victor, and twenty years later history repeated itself on the Parisian red clay, with the American downing Edberg in three exhilarating sets.
Prior to that, some of the most dominant clay court players of the past couple of decades have taken home the Paris title, including Sergi Bruguera, Jim Courier and Marcelo Rios.
The Lagardere Paris Racing Club is such a desirable location that current ATP Tour players such as Sebastien Grosjean and Fabrice Santoro are often counted amongst the spectators at the Jean-Luc Lagardere Trophy. In 2009, French legend and 1983 Roland Garros Champion Yannick Noah was even spotted courtside watching his old friend and tournament director Guy Forget.
Paris is France’s capital and its largest city, and so players and spectators are never short of plenty to do once the tennis is over for the day. The city is also home to Roland Garros, one of the four Grand Slam tournament venues, as well as the world famous football team Paris St.Germain and the Rugby Union club Stade Francais. Paris hosted the Olympic Games in 1900 and 1924, and more recently the FIFA World Cup in 1998 and the Rugby World Cup in 2007.
