Jean-Paul Belmondo will now have a lasting mark on the Roland-Garros courts. And more precisely on the Philippe Chatrier court, the center of the French tournament. It is as part of a boxing gala organized yesterday on the site that the organizers unveiled that a box will now bear the name of the French actor, who died last Monday.
Belmondo had a very strong link with the French tournament. In the 1970s, he was one of the first actors to take a box at the Roland-Garros tennis stadium, in the west of the capital. A black and white snapshot taken by AFP in 1973 – probably one of his first public appearances at Roland Garros – shows the actor and his friend, the other sacred monster of French cinema, Alain Delon, surrounded by the crowd, trying to make their way to the stands.
Since then, he has become a familiar face to the public and also to sportsmen. In 1987, the German tennis player Boris Becker, who was playing a match, came to shake his hand. His last publicized appearance on the stadium benches, alongside his sidekick Charles Gérard, dates from 2018: tousled hair, blue shirt, charismatic smile … Years have passed but Bébel is still there. And now will be forever. He is the first character outside tennis to have a box in his name at Roland Garros.
