By Keira Daley

7 June 2010

The Roland Garros Trophy has left French soil today for the first time ever and will be exclusively displayed at The Queen’s Club for the duration of the Aegon Championships this week, for which BNP Paribas is an official sponsor.

La Coupe Des Mousquetaires (The Musketeers’ Trophy) is the trophy awarded to the winner of the men’s singles competition at the French Open. It was presented yesterday to Rafael Nadal following his victory at Roland Garros. Created in its current form in 1981, it is supposed to symbolise the victories of four famous French tennis players, who together make up the “Four Musketeers”: Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste.

The trophy is usually housed in the office of the President of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and is only removed once every year, when the men’s singles winner at the French Open is announced. Before today, it had never left French soil.

BNP Paribas, which has been title sponsor of Roland Garros since 1973, is particularly honoured to have been granted permission to remove the trophy from its home and to bring to London for the first time. The trophy will be exclusively displayed on behalf of BNP Paribas at The Queen’s Club for the duration of the Aegon Championships.

BNP Paribas’s relationship with tennis goes back more than 37 years, one of the longest in the history of the sport. In addition to Roland Garros, the bank has had title sponsorship of various other events. In 2009, BNP Paribas became an official sponsor of British Tennis, providing support to the sport across the UK, with a strong brand presence at the LTA international tour events throughout June: the bank is official sponsor of the Aegon Championships and Title sponsor of the BNP Paribas Tennis Classic at Hurlingham.

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