Artists at work with brushes and rackets

There were many artists on display at Roland Garros today, some wielding Tennis rackets, others paint brushes, writes Roger Parker, in his daily diary from Roland Garros.

Some of winners earned their victories the hard way, others breezed into the quarter finals.

Win or lose every player’s name is hand painted onto a giant scoreboard by the official Roland Garros  signwriter who will have written all 256 names for the first round,  then 128  in the second round and so on until the final four Women’s and Men’s finalists names.

Lacoste “Crocodile Artist” Greg on his mission to complete a metre per day retrospective of all the famous winners is on schedule, even though he has to take regular breaks to warm up his cold, shaking hands in the sometimes arctic conditions here.

Today he completed his likeness of Novak Djokovic.

And finally, I noticed that the Moet & Chandon stall had disappeared today, no doubt neither the chilly wet weather nor the hefty €180 euros  a bottle price tag were conducive to rip-roaring sales this year, and the few lucky spectators allowed in preferred to stay huddled under their blankets.