Believe it or not, French Open, renowned for being played on slow red clay, was initially played on grass!

The tournament was first played in Paris in 1891. In 1897, a women's singles was added as well. But it wasn't until 1925 that non-French players were allowed to compete. There were no official championships during war years of 1939-45.

The 1920's were glory days for French tennis. On Female side there was legendary Suzanne Lenglen - known for both her daring fashion sense as well as her tennis.

And on male side there were famous Musketeers who defeated US to win Davis Cup in 1927 and held on to cup until 1933. These 4 Frenchmen ignited French passions:

--Henri Cochet, Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra, and Jacques Brugnon:

Borotra, known as " Bounding Basque from Biarritz" always wore a blue beret on and off court;

The Australian Open Tennis Championship, one of 4 tennis grand slam events, was first played in Melbourne in 1905. At it's inception it was originally called Australasian Championships. Five thousand people attended first final.

In 1922 , womens' singles event was added.

It became an open tournament in 1969 and was renamed Australian Open.

Until 1972 tournament was rotated amongst several Australian cities. And, tournament was actually held in New Zealand in 1906 and 1912. In 1972, tournament was moved permanently to Melbourne.

In 1977 2 tournaments were held - one in January and a second one in December. No tournament was held in 1986 as tournament was moved back to January and was held in January, 1987.