The opening year was somewhat disappointing. Only five players subscribed and the tournament took less than a day to play out. Few spectators bothered to turn up and, much to the disdain of the French, it was won by an Englishman!!  The victor was a certain Mr Briggs who happened to live in Paris at that time. His victory was largely due to the fact that entries to the tournament were limited to players that were registered with French tennis clubs, which Mr Briggs was of course. Also we shouldn’t forget that it was the English who had brought the game to France in the first place. It’s always important to give the French some sort of excuse!! (The restriction on foreign entries was to remain in place until 1925).

Finally, with the turn of the century there was a wish to expand the game to greater and more international horizons. Max Decugis, who won the championship at the age of 20 in 1903, was determined to take on the leading players from other tennis playing nations. He was one of the first Frenchman to have aspirations of an international carrier. Max lead the first French team to play in the Davis Cup of 1904. This unfortunately turned out to be a failure since they lost in the first round to Belgium 2/3 although it was the first step towards the subsequently famous French victory in this tournament in 1927. He went on to be the first Frenchman to win a title at Wimbledon. This was in partnership with André Gobert for the doubles in 1911. 

Meanwhile the French Championship was starting to expand and proving successful in attracting more competitors. After one brief riposte at Bordeaux in 1909, it returned on a permanent basis to Paris the following year.
 

In 1914 a very special young lady turned up to compete here. Her name was Suzanne Lenglen. At the tender age of only twelve and a half she got all the way through to the final where she lost to the then current title holder Miss Broquedis. When the championships started again after the end of the first world war, Suzanne was to become the unbeatable queen of her era.

With the end of the war and re-establishment of the two Championships, business took up again much as it had left off. All of the old faces were still there. In 1923 the thirty seven year old François Blanchy finally beat the almost unassailable Max Decugis for the men’s singles title. Max had reached the ripe old age of forty two and had already pocketed the championship eight times! The few new comers included Henri Cochet in 1922 and Jean Borotra in 1924.

In was in the national celebrations following victory in the Davis Cup that the French decided to build a new dedicated stadium for the rejuvenated championship. The “Roland Garros” Stadium subsequently opened the following year. The four great championships were now all in place as was the opportunity to achieve a true “grand slam”.