Roland Garros

2017

Our maiden Grand Slam experience could possibly not have been better than Roland Garros. 

Starting off with some tips to ensure a better experience than what we went through:

1. Track and book tickets in wave 1 itself. Wave 2 gets expensive and limited on Round 4 and upward availability
2. Round 4 matches that fall on first Sunday of the 2 week tournament offer the best price/value/holiday tickets for the big star matches 
3. Choose Philip Chartier over Suzanne Lenglen court. Higher probability of big star matches here 
4. Draft beer is the only alcohol available at the Bar Lounge and makes the best place to dine and refresh during the day here 
5. Be prepared for rain. Always a probability of this happening during the match days 

Now coming to the day spent there. The seats were honestly perfect. A little lower and closer to the grounds may have been better, but these were nearly exactly the view you get on the TV and made it awesome. 

One peculiar thing about the spectators here are the slogans they have. One is a form of "alle" and the other a type of trumpet noise. Both these keep popping up in different parts of the court and keep the mood festive all through. 

While a lot of people visit the store here to purchase souvenirs in spite of their hefty cost, that translates even food and everything you purchase at the grounds, we decided not to as our souvenir was the photo we managed to take with Leander Paes. If it wasn't for Geet, that may have never happened. She even met Sania later on. She was just saying she wished she saw Sania too, and there pops Sania in front of her. Some luck she's got. And I ended up spilling whipped all over my shorts and shoes while entering the stadium. Seemed like all the luck has just completed tilted to her side. 

Luck favoured during the match as well, where the rains literally waited for the Wawrinka match to conclude and then came pouring down. So we got to see the entire match before leaving, and it was really entertaining because the opponent was Fabio Fegnini who looked more like a Kung Fu fighter with dragon painting on the back of his shirt and skull logo on bandana and shirt front. 

He was just pure talent and attitude and nearly nabbed the first set. But just couldn't keep it up and lost quite simply in three sets to Wawrinka. 

Overall the entire experience was really phenomenal. Just like Leander said when we met him, "enjoy the French".

2018

Used all our previous learnings to book semi final tickets in advance for this year. Roland Garros is also the one Tennis Open where you buy day tickets and not match tickets, and therefore you get to see both men's semi final matches with the same ticket on the same day. 

We had Thiem to catch in the first match and Del Potro Nadal in the second. 

The first match we had seats in the very last row of the stadium, and the second one would have been there as well if not for some of Geet's magic. 

Magnum was sponsoring the event for the first time, and we used their lounge, which itself was a great experience, but here Geet got talking to the head of sales in France and he actually managed to find 2 seats for us at the box. 

Next thing we know, we are one row from the front and got to watch Nadal in all his raw power bang in front of us. 

Making this the best ever live sport for me of all time.