Most first-time Roland-Garros visitors overthink the ticket question. You don't need Chatrier. The Grounds Pass, officially the "Billet Annexe," gets you into every outside court on the grounds plus Court Simonne-Mathieu, and on any given day of the first week that's where half the interesting tennis is actually happening.
Simonne-Mathieu itself is worth the pass alone. Completed in 2019 and built into the adjoining Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil, the court sits four metres below ground level with greenhouses wrapped around all four sides, blending into the botanical garden's existing glasshouses rather than looking like a stadium dropped into a park. It seats 5,000 and it's the most photographed court at the tournament that isn't Chatrier. The court is named for Simonne Mathieu, who won the French Championships in 1938 and 1939 before leading a battalion of the Free French Forces during the war — one of the more remarkable namesakes in tennis.
The Grounds Pass itself doesn't guarantee seats anywhere. Outside-court seating is first-come, general admission, so arriving when gates open gets you an actual seat rather than standing room three rows back. What the pass buys you instead is movement: junior matches, wheelchair tennis, legends exhibitions, qualifying rounds early in the tournament, and the freedom to wander from court to court chasing whichever match has the better crowd reaction that hour. It's the closest Roland-Garros gets to a festival ticket.
Getting one requires patience with the FFT's system, which runs on a ballot rather than first-come-first-served. Registration for the general public draw typically opens in early December and closes mid-month; if you're selected, you're emailed a purchase window in the second half of February, though selection only guarantees a shot at buying, not a specific ticket. A second sales phase, first-come-first-served, opens in late March for Opening Week and outside-court tickets covering the second week. Tickets are digital-only through the official Roland-Garros app — there's no print-at-home option and no physical ticket to carry.
The FFT sells through exactly four official channels: tickets.rolandgarros.com, travel.rolandgarros.com, hospitality.rolandgarros.com, and the tournament's named official agencies. Everything else claiming to sell Roland-Garros tickets, however convincing the branding, sits outside that list.
Why it's special
The Grounds Pass is the honest way to experience a Grand Slam. Chatrier and Lenglen give you the marquee matches and reserved seating, which is its own kind of good, but it's a fixed, formal experience — you sit down, you watch one match, you leave. The Grounds Pass is the opposite: you're on your feet, moving between courts, deciding for yourself which match is worth staying for based on the noise coming from three courts over.
