2012 French Open Tennis Championship

2012 French Open Tennis Championship Stade Roland Garros, Paris, France

2012 French Open Package includes:

. Five nights accommodations . Center Court tickets for the 2012 French Open on May 30th and May 31st 2012 . Metro Pass . City and metro maps; restaurant and museum guides . Round trip air from 50 US cities . Broach Sports Tours assistance . All taxes and service charges included

You will love your Roland Garros tennis tickets:

 VIP Entrance into Roland Garros  First Category Seating on Philippe-Chatrier Court - in 2011 in first 16 rows  Afternoon hospitality with Open Bar and food starting at 3:15 PM in a area on the grounds  Roland Garros Official Tennis Magazine and more

Cost per person double at 3 -star Hotel Poussin: $3311.

Cost per person double at 4 -star Hotel Lutetia: $4113. The Lutetia is west bank hotels 15 minutes from the French Open Stade Roland Garros on a direct metro line. The hotel is a full service hotel in walking distance of most of the Paris sites.

Options: Land only: no air subtract $945 Airport transfers, Museum Pass, Paris sightseeing tours, Seine River Cruise ,Day tour to Monet's gardens and home or Versailles Full-day tour to Mont. St. Michel Extra nights and tickets

Itinerary

May 27, 2012 - Depart US am arrive Paris AM on 28th May 28 and 29 - Enjoy Paris May 30 and May 31st - Roland Garros VIP tickets June 1 - Enjoy Paris June 2- depart Paris or let us help you extend your trip into France, England or Europe Hotel Poussin

The hotel is a 5 -7 minute walk to Roland Garros stadium, near the Parc des Princes, The Racecourse of Longchamp and Auteuil's and Coubertin stadium i n the Edge of the Bois de Boulogne, a place quiet and well Situated by connections in all The Demonstration and Parisian monuments in a character building, The Hotel Poussin reserves you a personalized reception, emanating The Tenderness & the charm of a lounge-art Deco on the ground of marble and a terrace on the roof With sight of Paris. Rooms include: . Sound damping . Hairdryer . Float screen TV . International network direct telephone . Mini bar . Individual safe

Broach Sports Tours 5821 Fairview Road #118 Charlotte, NC 28209 800-849-6345 704-365-6500

Carlos, Thank you for a most memorable "Wimbledon Experience." Every aspect of your leadership was evident. We have been fortunate to have been able to travel extensively and our rating of this package was at the very top. It was a most enjoyable experience for our whole family. It actually went way above our expectations. The hotel, seats at Center Court and your invaluable guidance will always be remembered. Best wishes for the future. -- Abbye & Irv Sheltzer and family

Sam and I had such a wonderful time to The US Open! We got to see some incredible tennis, and meet great folks like you and Nelson! From the moment we met you in the Millennium's Bar, we knew we liked you guys! You were both very informative and easy-going, and your passion for tennis showed in how well you ran the tour. I've already phoned our travel agent and told her how super you guys are, and that we would highly recommend your tour group to others. Sam and I would be very happy to post a recommendation for you, just let us know how! Thank you again for providing us with the (hopefully first of many!) trip of a lifetime to the US Open!

Dear Carlos: Thank you so much for a fantastic trip to the 2011 Australian open. Everything went great, from the flight to the transports. I loved the hotels I stayed in and my seats at the Rod Laver Arena were awesome. The whole experience was great and I loved Melbourne because the city was so easy to navigate. I especially enjoyed Victoria Market. I also loved the location of the hotel as I could easily walk to the arena. This was the best Tennis tour I have been on and I am looking forward to maybe do it again next year. Thank you again for a great experience. Maryam

CARLOS, THANK YOU AGAIN FOR A FUN DAVIS CUP EXPERIENCE!!!!! YOU ARE THE GREATEST! I LOOK FORWARD TO HAVING MY FRIENDS SHARE YOUR WONDERFUL TENNIS TRIPS. THANK YOU, ALSO, FOR BEING SOOOOO KIND TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER - HANNAH HAD A SUPER WEEKEND WITH TENNIS N' FUN!!!!!! I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT TRIP! NAVADA INGLE

Hi Carlos - Sabrina and I thoroughly enjoyed our Wimbledon experience. It was the trip of a lifetime. The seats at Centre Court were great and we especially enjoyed the Debenture Club passes to go up to the lounges and outside decks. All of my friends are envious when I tell them that I saw Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic play on Centre Court on the same day. We enjoyed meeting you and think Broach Sports Tours does a great job of organizing trips. We had previously taken a baseball trip with Broach. Looking forward to seeing your pictures. -- Lana Kahler

Carlos McCracken,Tennis Director [email protected] 704-814-6801 704-564-9555 Roland Garros Information

Restaurants: Spectators restaurant for the public (600 capacity) beneath Court Philippe Chatrier (Centre Court) Stand D. You can also use one of the three stadium restaurants: The "Passing", under Court n1’s scoreboard; The "Terrasse", located under the South stand of Court Suzanne Lenglen; The "Buffet" on the CNE esplanade. The "Buffet" is a restaurant of approximately 1000m² which can seat up to three hundred people. Half of the seats are sheltered in case of rain. There are also numerous kiosks all around the stadium.

Medical Assistance: Three infirmaries are open to the public inside the stadium: at Court Philippe Chatrier (Centre Court), under stand B; at Court n1, facing the "Village"; and at Court Suzanne Lenglen, under the East stand

Cloakroom: A cloakroom has been installed along Court n9 in avenue Suzanne Lenglen. Checked-in items are insured on a daily basis for the price of 5FF per coat and 10FF per bag.

Lunch or dine at a very special venue: The Roland-Garros Restaurant

Located right at the heart of clay court paradise, the Roland-Garros restaurant offers original and refined creations allying tradition with modernity. The glass panels and brick walls, plus the superb rotisserie and fireplace, make it the ideal cosy refuge. On the garden side, the Roland-Garros opens onto a flower-filled terrace facing the famous Centre Court, allowing you to savour those fine summer days to the full. The Roland-Garros is at 2bis, avenue Gordon-Bennett — 75016 Paris Tel. : 01 47 43 49 56 - M° Porte d’Auteuil. Valet-parking service at lunchtime.

Stadium Visit Get behind the scenes at Roland Garros! Discover everything that the stadium has to offer – from the stands where the fans flock to enjoy the finest clay-court tennis in the world right through to the zones where only players are allowed. This amazing guided tour will show you all the history of the stadium as you relive the heady days of the French on-court "Musketeers", the "Divine" Miss Suzanne Lenglen and many more champions besides. You will also get a glimpse inside the player-only zones, changing-rooms, media centre and of course the prestigious Philippe Chatrier court. Tours are conducted by a professional guide with either French or English commentary. Tours behind the scenes are open each day, except on Mondays. This summer, three guided tours per day: - 11 am and 3 pm: English - 2 pm and 5 pm : French - 4 pm: junior guided tout (8 people or more) The visit lasts for just over an hour. Tours must be booked in advance, by telephone: (+33) 1 47 43 48 48 or by e-mail: [email protected]

French Open Tennis Tournament Rules – there are a few that are different!

The French Open Tennis Tournament rules have been a guideline and bible of sorts to one of the most prestigious events in the world of tennis. It is a major tennis tournament held in Paris over a period of two weeks between late May and the earlier part of June. The most recent champion in the men’s division is world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain, while Francesca Schiavone pulled off a stunning run to win in the women’s division. Considered as one of the most grueling tournaments in the International Tennis Federation, the French Open is played in the sprawling Le Stade de Roland- Garros, a 21-acre complex which houses twenty tennis courts. Although the French Open follows all of the ITF Tennis rules and regulations, there are a few guidelines that are unmistakably Roland-Garros.

The Court Type – The French Open is the only remaining Grand Slam tennis event that is played on the unbelievably unpredictable clay courts. The conclusion of the French Open each year indicates the closing of the spring clay court season. It is no secret that partly behind Nadal’s rise to the world number one ranking is his mastery of co-protagonist and former world number one Roger Federer in the clay courts. The Tie Break – The French Open, similar to the Australian Open and the Wimbledon, does not utilize a tiebreaker in the event that a set is knotted at six-all. Conventionally, in other Grand Slam events, a winner is decided when a player reaches seven points in a best-of-15 sequence and if they are ahead by at least two points. With no tiebreaker rule, the French Open can go on long periods of time where players will keep on playing games until one of them will pull off a two-point lead. Such a predicament happened in the 2010 edition of Wimbledon when the first round match between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner stretched out to three days with a total of 183 games in eleven hours and five minutes of playing time.

Sporting Conduct – In as much as the Roland-Garros highly encourages audience participation in giving all-out motivational patronage to a favorite player, the tournament rules also states that proper conduct be observed following the sportsmanship guidelines. Silence must be observed at all times during an exchange in play and when a player is serving. Rulings made by the umpire and his respective line judges are an essential aspect of the match and should not be made a basis to jeer or insult them. It is but proper to show a sense of fanaticism in support of a favored player, albeit within respectful parameters.

History of the French Open

The history of the French Open introduces the tennis fan to famous names of yesteryear’s scoreboards. There was Max Decugis, who won eight men’s titles before 1925. Björn Borg came close with his six wins between 1974 and 1981.

Of course, there is so much more to the history of the French Open than merely stats and record holders. For example, did you know that the maker of much of the history of the French Open—the aforementioned Max Decugis—medaled at the Olympics? In addition to being a tennis legend at the tournament, he won three Olympic medals at the Paris summer Olympics in 1900.

Michael Chang has the distinction of being the youngest man to ever win the singles title at the French Open when he played a winning match in 1989 at the tender age of seventeen-years-old. Not surprisingly, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. On the flipside, the history of the French Open is also full of head scratchers. Consider Boris Becker, who used to be Germany’s tennis sweetheart and youngest Wimbledon winner at the age of seventeen; he never once won the Open.

Tennis organization officials were allowed to use the Stade de France property only if naming the stadium after Roland Garros. Many sports fans know that Garros was a noted French aviator whose World War I exploits made him famous. Few, however, remember that the aviator’s name became clouded by his supposed failure to destroy his downed plane, which allegedly allowed then-secret technology to fall into the hands of the German army. Naturally, the history of the French Open contains a plethora of other obscure facts and noteworthy firsts. Sadly, there is a chance that at least one history-making element of the tournament may go by the wayside: it is possible that the Roland Garros stadium may no longer host the event in the coming years. In fact, there is talk that the French Open may leave Paris altogether.

Surface characteristics

Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared to grass courts or hard courts. For this reason, clay courts take away some of the advantages of big serves and serve-and-volleyers, which makes it hard for serve based players to dominate on the surface. For example, Pete Sampras, a player known for his huge serve, never won the French Open (nor even advanced to the final) in his entire career. Many players who have won multiple Grand Slam events have never won the French Open, including John McEnroe, Venus Williams, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, and Maria Sharapova. Andy Roddick, who holds the record for fastest serve in the history of professional tennis, has never advanced past the fourth round.

On the other hand, players whose games are more suited to slower surfaces, such as Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Rafael Nadal, and Mats Wilander, and on the women's side, Justine Henin have found great success at this tournament. In the open era, the only male players who have won both the French Open and Wimbledon, played on faster grass courts, are Rod Laver, Jan Kodeš, Björn Borg, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. ‘Thought you might enjoy the below articles:

FRENCH OPEN MAY HAVE TO LEAVE PARIS AND “WATCH TRADITION GROW”

In my days at the U.S. Tennis Association, I remember reading articles about the U.S. Open’s move from the historic West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills to the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. and how people were lamenting about the “loss to tradition.” W.E. “Slew” Hester, the President of the U.S. Tennis Association who spearheaded the move from Forest Hills to Flushing, said in response, “You want tradition, we’ll plant some ivy.” The French Open is finding itself in a very similar situation as the French Tennis Federation negotiates and considers moving out of its current Roland Garros site and building a larger, more comfortable site outside of the Paris city limits. The dilemma is simple – do you sacrifice tradition and history for more comfort and additional revenue? Roger Federer, commentating on the situation prior to the start of this year’s tournament, asked “What about the soul of Roland Garros? This is what we might miss after.” The U.S. Open’s USTA National Tennis Center – now called the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center – is filled with new traditions and memories. During the first year the US Open was played in Flushing Meadows in 1978, Hester had a sprig of potted ivy at the facility’s entrance with a handwritten sign underneath it proclaiming “Watch Tradition Grow!” To boot, the U.S. Open now produces the largest economic impact than any annual international sporting event in the world. Jean Gachassin, the President of the French Tennis Federation, could learn a lot from Hester and the USTA when they were forced to make the monumental decision of leaving the historic and traditional West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills and move to a new, anesthetic USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, a site that used to be a marshy trash dump. Roland Garros is currently played on a site which less than half the size of the All England Club at Wimbledon and Melbourne Park in Australia (approximately 50 acres each.) The Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center sits on 34.5 acres. Players and fans have long complained at the lack of space at Roland Garros, which sits on 19.8 acres. Federer, also the ATP World Tour Player Council President, recently delivered the French Tennis Federation with a long list of players’ complaints about the overcrowding. The world’s No. 1 doubles team of Mike and Bob Bryan recently cited the “meat market” on their Twitter page about the lack of space in the player’s lounge. The French Tennis Federation’s first choice is to stay within Roland Garros, but build two new stadiums costing around €200 million. The other options would be the town of Marne-le-Vallée, the site of the Euro Disney resort, a 148-acre site in Versailles, or a 74-acre site in Ysern. The new French Open site would feature 55 clay courts, including two big outdoor courts with retractable roofs holding 18,000 and 12,000 spectators. Moving the tournament to Versailles, in a way, might bring in some new found tradition and history as the famed palace of King Louis and Marie Antoinette would become a scenic neighbor. The palace also is the site of perhaps the most important event to ever happen on a tennis court – the famous “Tennis Court Oath” where the meeting of infant French National Assembly pledged on June 17, 1789, to “never to cry to the King, and to meet quietly when the circumstances demand, until the constitution of France is happily singing.” It was a hallmark event in the creation of democracy around the world. “Moving is an option we cannot rule out,” said Gachassin. “Of course we are very attached to the (current) stadium. Some of the greatest pages of our sport’s history have been written on these courts. This stadium has a past, a soul. But as this is an extremely complex project; it is our duty to consider another direction, which would be the relocation of the Roland Garros stadium.” The French Open has been played at the current site since 1928. Again, a repeating theme here, but demand necessitated the creation of the current Roland Garros venue as the French Tennis Federation had to build a stadium suitable to fulfill the demand for tickets for the French Davis Cup team – comprising of the famed four Musketeers of Rene Lacoste, Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon – and their Challenge Round match against Bill Tilden and the U.S. Davis Cup team. The stadium was named “Roland Garros” – to honor the memory of the famous French aviator and fighter pilot who was killed in World War I. The French have, in essence, rebranded the name “Roland Garros” from the name of the facility to the name of the event. That begs the question that if “Roland Garros” left “Roland Garros” would it still be “Roland Garros?” The U.S. Open had a similar issue as the tournament became simply known as “Forest Hills” rather than the U.S. Nationals or the U.S. Open. It took some time before people stopped calling the event Forest Hills and it became known simply as “the Open.” Many people forget, or don’t know, that Wimbledon faced the same dilemma starting in 1919 with the emergence of an immensely popular champion, ironically being Suzanne Lenglen, the woman whose name graces the second-biggest stadium at the Roland Garros grounds. Back in those days, Wimbledon was played on the grass courts at Worple Road in Wimbledon Village since the tournament’s inception in 1877. However, more and more fans came to watch The Championships – and in particular Lenglen – so the tournament had to be moved to a different location just down the road and the current Wimbledon site debuted in 1922 Of course, the story of Tennis Australia moving from the private, cramped Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club to the ultra-modern Flinders Park (now Melbourne Park) in 1988 is well-documented and fresh in people’s minds. The first site of the U.S. Championships – the Newport Casino in Newport, R.I. – now the site of the International Tennis Hall of Fame – also became too small and cramped for the U.S. Championships and the event moved to New York in 1915. Said French Open tournament director Gilbert Ysern: “Roland Garros cannot stay the way it is. We have two options, make it bigger or move out. Over the last 10 years, the three other grand slam tournaments have progressed, notably in terms of infrastructure, but we haven’t.” Stay tuned to see if tradition will continue or whether we will watch it grow.

Jam-Packed Reality: Time to Kiss Roland Garros Goodbye http://gregcouch.com/2011/02/11/jam-packed-reality-time-for-french-open-to-leave-roland-garros/ Posted: February 11, 2011

Rafael Nadal had won the French Open after a year of uncertainty about his body, his career, his family, and it all came in the same place where Francesca Schiavone had won a day earlier, and rolled around in the red clay like a little kid. I admit to feeling the emotion. And the ghosts, too, of Roland Garros, of Bjorn Borg, Suzanne Lenglen, Rene Lacoste. So I went down to the court, pulled a Tic Tac box from my pocket, emptied it, scooped up the red clay and took some history home. On Sunday, the French tennis federation will vote on whether to keep the French Open at the quaint spot in Paris, or possibly to move to a modern expanse in, gulp, the suburbs. How do you feel about that, about what modernization is doing to our most cherished sports memories? Is your baseball team still in the place of your greatest childhood memories? Your football team? Two hours after the Chicago Bears lost to Philadelphia in the playoffs a few years ago at Soldier Field, the old place was coming down to make room for a new stadium. Modern times insisted. It was a rush job. So I went out to the stands for one last look. Sat there. Called my dad on the cell. Talked about seeing the Bears there as a kid, watching Stan Smith in a tennis tournament there. My dad said he saw auto races there. History. Even Jack Dempsey fought Gene Tunney in the famous long count. Al Capone had bet on Dempsey. The bulldozers were already there when my dad mentioned something about, well, never really liking the place. I noticed it smelled like urine. The seats were uncomfortable and didn’t even face the middle of the field. The bathrooms are disgusting, the food no good, the sightlines a disaster. We started laughing and realized: The place is a dump. Reality weighs more than memories. This takes me back to Roland Garros. It is beautiful, romantic, nostalgic. It’s not a dump. But it is a terrible, terrible place to watch a tennis tournament. Terrible. Sacrilege? Just reality. Reality from a guy with a Tic Tac container of red clay on his desk.

They jam the entire French Open onto 21 acres. Wimbledon and the Australian are on 49. And it’s not just about big crowds and half-hour long lines to get food, though there is that, too. To watch from the main stadium is nice. But it’s the grounds, where most matches are played, where the experience is lost. At the U.S. Open, you get a pass and wander the outer courts. You can stand between them and watch a match if you like. If the match loses your interest, just turn around and see another one. You keep tabs on several matches, hustle over when you hear of something big happening, stand and watch there. Sure, there are seats if you know you want to stay in one spot all day. It’s a similar setup at Wimbledon and the Australian. The French? It is so jammed, with vines covering fences, that you can’t see into courts from the outside. So you wait in line. Half an hour. An hour. It’s hot. And in France, no one has ever taught anyone how to wait in line without pushing or cutting in front. By the time you finally get into a court to take a seat, if the match has gone bad, you are faced with a big decision: Leave now, having blown the 45 minutes it took to get in, find another court, wait 45 more and hope a good match there isn’t over yet by the time you get in. Or, just sit there watching a bad match. The other three majors, too, have spacious areas to sit and watch matches from the center court on a massive screen, eat and congregate. Around the fountains at the U.S. Open. On the hill at Wimbledon. On lounge chairs, with live bands playing at the Australian. The French has a tiny area like that, but everyone bumps into everyone. Last year, I felt so bad for the two Haagen Dazs girls who had to stand there — and sell me ice cream every day — that I started buying them ice cream, too. When bad weather hits? Nowhere to hide, other than one small hall outside Court Phillippe Chatrier, — center court — where thousands mob in and … won’t … move. Versailles is the most likely site for the tournament. It’s not perfect. The wait for a train from Paris to Versailles can take forever. It is way out in the bright, clean suburbs. But the palace and gardens are in Versailles, and more importantly, there is space. They can build a new experience and make new history. There are some botanic grounds near Roland Garros, and the Paris government didn’t want the tournament to expand there. They wanted the green space. Besides, those gardens are hundreds of years old, too, talk about ghosts. But now, Paris’ mayor has decided that they can build a new stadium out onto the garden areas. Don’t move. Expand. Tournament officials say if they choose that route, they’ll keep the gardens in tact somehow. Still, on the grounds, the courts are too close together. I think they would need to tear most of it down and start over, keeping the Bullring court, a tiny stadium with incredible feel, as a tribute. The U.S. Open moved from the quaint neighborhood in Forest Hills to Flushing Meadow, which is not scenic or beautiful. For the past two years during the Open, I’ve gone to Forest Hills and hit tennis balls at the old stadium. Yes, you feel the ghosts there, too. But the place just wasn’t big enough to hold a modern major sporting event. The U.S. Open had to move. That doesn’t mean I don’t value the memories. A small hunk of concrete from the Forest Hills stadium sits on my desk right next to the Tic Tac box.

In Tennis, Fashion Police Look the Other Way http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/sports/tennis/27fashion.html?_r=1&src=mv By JOHN BRANCH Published: May 26, 2010

PARIS — Venus Williams’s serves have long been a big focus of her every match, but never more so than now. Williams, the world’s No. 2 women’s player, has created quite a stir at the French Open by playing in a lacy, see-through black dress that she designed. Her short, flouncy skirt has photographers snapping furiously at every lunging serve, as the loose, frilly bottom flips upward to display near-sheer, skin-tone undershorts that reveal every curve, particularly from behind. Photographs of her backside — Is she wearing underwear at all? — have stormed the Internet, much as they did in January, when she wore a yellow dress with a similarly nude look underneath during the Australian Open. Investigations of a personal nature have begun anew. “It’s really about the illusion,” Williams said after a 6-2, 6-4 second-round victory against Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain on Wednesday. “Like, you can wear lace, but what’s the point of wearing lace when there’s just black under? The illusion of just having bare skin is definitely, for me, a lot more beautiful.” Controversial sartorial choices have been a part of tennis practically since the game was invented. The permissible line — the hemline, sure, but mostly the metaphorical one — is broadly interpreted. The Women’s Tennis Association Tour rulebook states only that players “will be expected to dress and present themselves in a professional manner.” It continues: “A player shall wear appropriate and clean tennis attire and shall not wear sweatshirts, sweat pants, T-shirts, jeans or cut-offs during matches. A player may be asked to change if the referee deems it necessary. Failure to do so may result in default from a tournament and/or a fine.” (The issue of “grass court shoes,” including details on the allowable diameter, height, slope and hardness of the “pimples,” consumes most of two full pages.) No player has been fined for breaking the clothing rule, said Andrew Walker, the tour’s senior vice president for global marketing and communications. He said that there had been internal discussions about Williams’s outfits, but that they had been deemed appropriate. Besides, during Grand Slam events, the local tournament officials play fashion police, using an almost identically vague rule. The French Tennis Federation, which runs the French Open, determined that Williams’s dress and undershorts would be allowed. With all the attention they are getting, they may actually be encouraged. Tennis fashion, so often an oxymoron, stirs chronic debate for both the professional men and women. Rules have not prevented questionable fashion decisions ranging from 1970s-era short shorts, Rafael Nadal’s pirate pants and sleeveless shirts, Roger Federer’s personalized courtside jacket and headbands, and Andre Agassi’s color-splotched shirts and faux hair. But in tennis fashion, the deepest curiosity usually focuses on women and what they reveal. Suzanne Lenglen, for whom one of the major show courts at Roland Garros is named, arrived at Wimbledon more than 90 years ago, creating a sensation with her bare arms and a calf-length pleated dress. Helen Wills Moody, one of the game’s greatest champions, often wore skirts above her knees and a sporty visor. In 1949 the American Gertrude Moran wore a short skirt at Wimbledon that intentionally revealed lace-trimmed undershorts. Court-side photographers crouched as low as possible to get a shot up her skirt. Moran, nicknamed Gorgeous Gussy, was appalled at the attention. “We weren’t talking Frederick’s of Hollywood,” she told The Orlando Sentinel in 1988. Some things never change. Three years ago at Wimbledon, Tatiana Golovin wore red under her white dress. After some scrutiny, tournament officials, in an official statement, ruled it underwear, not shorts. Red underwear was permissible. The next year, Maria Sharapova wore a tuxedo-inspired get-up. It broke no rules, not counting those of good taste, according to her second-round opponent, Alla Kudryavtseva. “It’s very pleasant to beat Maria,” Kudryavtseva said afterward. “Why? I don’t like her outfit. Can I put it this way?” There have been other sartorial flare-ups. Anne White came to Wimbledon in 1985 wearing a tight, white bodysuit. At the United States Open in 2002, Serena Williams, Venus’s sister and the current No. 1 player, wore a skin-tight, short-shorted number that looked as if it might have been molded for a superhero. “This is more of a cat suit,” she explained at the time. “It is not a wet suit.” Bethanie Mattek-Sands is a premier attention-grabber. She wore a sort of cowboy hat at the United States Open in 2005, and said on Monday that she was fined $10,000 for it. Tim Curry, a spokesman for the United States Tennis Association, said Wednesday that the fine was $1,000. But Mattek-Sands has had referees approve and disapprove of her outfits before taking the court. “It’s really a hazy line,” she said. “So I think it’s cool when people push it.” She has toned down her attire — now 25, she is more into tattoos, she said — but gave Williams’s lacy black dress an enthusiastic endorsement. Photographs of Williams on the Internet from the opening day of the French Open, she pointed out, gave tennis attention it probably would not receive otherwise. Mattek-Sands said she tired of seeing Tour players looking and dressing so much alike. “You see two girls, blond hair, wearing the exact same thing head to toe,” she said. “If I can’t tell them apart, no way a fan’s going to tell them apart. So it just brings, you know, something unique to the game.” That is the attitude of the women’s tour, too. Players are brands, of a sort, and they can dress as they and their sponsors see fit, provided ... well, that is the uncertain part. Williams seems unbound by convention. She enjoyed the mystery that surrounded her is-she-wearing-any Australian Open outfit, and she took delight in knowing that her latest design, meant to invoke wonder, had done far more than that. The tight-fitting top has thin red straps and red piping for a corset-style look. Her push-up black bra and straps peeked out from underneath. She capped the ensemble on a cool and breezy Wednesday with a white visor. A French reporter told Williams that fans surveyed in the stands mostly approved, and that one man said it was “good for my imagination,” although it does not require much. Her sister Serena showed Williams a photograph from behind. Williams said she did not know that the undershorts would match her skin so well. And she is not about to change now. “The design has nothing to do with the rear,” Williams said. “It just so happens that I have a very well-developed one.”

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