By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, December 21, 2023
  
A reimagined Roland Garros is an artistic splash.

French photographer Paul Rousteau transports Roland Garro's red clay to the River Seine in the newly unveiled 45th tournament poster.

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Continuing an annual tradition that began in 1980, the French Tennis Federation commissioned an artist to create the iconic Roland Garros poster.

Photographer Rousteau transplants the terre battue onto the River Seine with the bright yellow ball beaming down as the sun in a tennis sky.



It's an appropriate image given King of Clay Rafael Nadal, whose astounding Court Philippe Chatrier record evokes a man walking on water, aims to return to Roland Garros in may for what could be his French Open farewell.

Fourteen-time Roland Garros champion Nadal has registered a mind-blowing 112-3 record with only two men—Robin Soderling in 2009 and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in 2015 and 2021—defeating the Spanish superstar at Roland Garros.

Here's a reminder of the 2023 Roland Garros poster art.



In this 2023 piece titled Land of the Stars, young French artist Maxime Verdier re-imagines Roland Garros as a starscape where all dreams are possible.

It was a historic breakthrough for Roland Garros' distinguished history of poster art.

This was the first Roland Garros official post to be drawn entirely in colored pencil. Court Philippe-Chatrier is at the center of the piece presented bathed in a halo of light beneath a night sky with bright yellow tennis ball stars lighting up the sky serving symbolically as the alluring tennis dreams of players and fans of all ages.

Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty