° (Note: For the first time, I am writing this on a French keyboard, which is very different than the primarily English language ones I am used to: Generall, when I write, I am not looking down on the keyboard. This time, I generqlly have to: Just enough letters and symbols have been changed to ,ake this significantly trickier than normal. So mistakes have been made, and I simply cannot promise to catch them all. Apologies in advance. Thus; I will thank the reader in advance for providing me some leway with mistakes which I likely will not catch).
Yes, I know that I already wrote and posted something about this day.
Yet, the members of the teams were kept a surprise until the last minute.
Frankly; between the confusion and element of surprise and; of course; the language barrier; I simply did not catch all of the names of the players. Or even most of them.
Presently; I am writing this while visiting my aunt in Dijon, France. While the WiFi connection was better than expected while staying with my cousin, my phone currently cannot connect. My aunt was unfamiliar with WiFi. No point to press the issue: There seems no point to press or force the issue. Not only am I grateful to be here, but pleqsed to have internet. And it felt like a solid opportunity to write q slightly more thorough review of the event, now that the opportunity presents itself.
When searching for reviews of the event, I found some links to articles (see below). Here are some greater details:
Fans packed into the stands producing occasional Mexican waves as they cheered on Gael Monfils, Marion Bartoli, 17-year-old sensation Moise Kouame and others during the laugh-a-minute tilt.
And below that was a paragraph which finally revealed to me all of the tennis stars (understandably almost entirely French) who participated):
The highlight of the day took place on the Philippe-Chatrier court between 2 and 3pm with “The Battle”. Team Yannick Noah went head-to-head with Team Amelie Mauresmo in a thrilling tennis match featuring former French tennis champions and rising stars; Amélie Mauresmo, Yannick Noah, Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Gael Monfils, Mansour Bahrami, Moïse Kouame, Cédric Pioline, Arthur Rinderknech, Elsa Jacquemot, Marion Bartoli, Fabrice Santoro and Ksenia Efremova all took part. Dancers also accompanied Lenie, Jungeli & Emma’s live performances, bringing the court to life.
I remember Cédric Pioline. And of course, some others. An impressive list of tennis greats of the game, to be sure.
In short; as one of the titles of the articles suggested, it was all sunshine and smiles on that day; However; I saw that Monfils lost in the first round last night, which surely was significantly earlier than he expected: Plus; he got bageled in the final set; losing 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 0-6. Doubt that he was truly smiling after that.
But then again, who knows? Monfils always struck me as a decent; relatively happy guy in general. He very well may have taken it all in stride.
Another tennis legend whom I saw for the Yannick Noah Day, Stan Wawrinka, also exited after the first round.
Still; I was very happy to have gotten the chance to see him.
Okay, so I doubt that I will write about any French Open updates between now and the end of the trip: So that should be that until I get back.
Take care.
Below are the links to the articles which I found and ulti,ately used, and from which all of the article passages used in this entry were taken;
'The Battle': Noah vs Mauresmo Sunday 24 May 2026 Highlights of the Yannick Noah Day 'Battle' between Team Yannick Noah and Team Amélie Mauresmo
'The Battle': Noah vs Mauresmo - Roland-Garros 2026 - The official site
Sunshine and smiles on Yannick Noah Day On a perfect Saturday, the kids took charge at Roland-Garros
Sunshine and smiles on Yannick Noah Day - Roland-Garros 2026 - The official site
Yannick Noah Day: sell-out crowd brings record-breaking Opening Week to a close Sold-out Yannick Noah Day brings Opening Week to perfect conclusion Team Noah, Yannick Noah Day 2026 ©Loîc Wacziak / FFT Sunday 24 May 2026
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