PARIS — It would have been extraordinary enough if the first open Grand Slam tournament had been staged in routine conditions.
After all, it had taken tennis officials such a long time to allow professionals like Ken Rosewall and Pancho Gonzales to compete with the amateurs, some of whom were paid under the table like professionals anyway.
But after nearly 80 years, the door to the French Championships was finally open to all of the game’s great talents in 1968 in Paris. The trouble was that barricades were up in other parts of the city as the protests and strikes that had been raging throughout May in France and beyond continued to cause upheaval with students and workers rallying against the established order.