French Open tickets went on sale to the general public this week and through careful planning, plus some great advice from friends on Twitter, @Ballboy2012 and I were able to get what we think are good seats for all the sessions we wanted.

At the French Open at Court Phillipe Chatrier in 2010

I’ve been to the French Open twice before. Once in 2008 after buying incredibly overpriced tickets from an agency, when it turned out that @Ballboy2012 is allergic to clay, and in 2010 when we bought tickets through my Australian Open membership and paid face value.

This was my first time buying tickets online on the day they went on sale. While the ticket buying experience is fresh in my mind I’m sharing my tips for buying French Open tix, in case it’s useful for you in future years and helps you get the tickets you’re hoping for.

Read about the Ticket Buying Process in Advance

There are limitations on how many tickets you can buy. For the show courts each individual can only purchase a total of 4 tickets over the course of the entire tournament. There are also other ticket limits that you need to know about.

Read the ticketing info on the Roland Garros website here

At the link above there is PDF “Online Reservation User Guide” that you can download. This proved to be very useful because when I actually got online to buy tickets I got a bit nervous about finding the right tickets. But, because I had read the guide before hand I knew what to expect.

What time do you log on to the website?

I’m always keen to get the best seats possible and generally that means buying the tickets as soon as possible from when they are available.

My previous experience buying tickets online is mostly for the Australian Open, when tickets go on sale at 9am and I have been ready and waiting at the right time and got connected straight away.

The French Open website advised that tickets were available on 15 February but not the time they would be available. I naturally assumed it would be 9am but luckily a friend on Twitter* who is very experienced at buying FO tickets advised me that it all happens at 8am and sometimes even 7am Paris time.

These are good tickets to buy from the Southern Hemisphere because instead of having to get up early, I went to the website at around 4pm Melbourne time (about 6am Paris time). At that point the website said it was “down for maintenance” or something like that.

Then when I looked at about 6.55am Paris time it said I was in a queue with a wait of about 30 minutes. It felt like the queue moved fast, probably because the website is well set up and easy to use. I didn’t pay close attention to the time but within about 25 minutes I had moved through the queue and finished buying my tickets.

*Huge thanks to @zohaib9518 for this tip because it made a huge difference to the quality of seats that we were able to buy.

Other Useful Tips

• Create your French Open account prior to when the tickets go on sale, so you’re ready to log straight in and buy when the tickets are on sale
• Read about the ticketing limitations in advance so you know what to expect
• The website defaults to French, click on the British flag in the top right hand corner to switch to English
• Plan what days and courts you would like tickets for, check the pricing and write them down in order of priority. This helps you stay focused if, like me, you freak out a little bit once you’ve actually got through and have the chance to buy your tickets!
• Follow @rolandgarros for updates on ticketing information.

These tips are based on my own experience from 2012 but hopefully they are helpful if you’re buying tickets for future years.

At Roland Garros the main court is called Phillipe Chatrier and the next best court is Suzanne Lenglen. I love the quality of tennis that’s played in Hisense Arena, the Number 2 court at the Australian Open, during the first week so on this basis we bought most tickets for Suzanne Lenglen.

The end result of the ticket buying frenzy is that in 2012 we’ll be at the French Open on Tuesday 29 May, Saturday 2 June, Sunday 3 June and Tuesday 5 June. On the other days I’ll be watching as much as tennis as possible on TV.

It already feels like way more than 3 weeks since the Aus Open finished but luckily there are only 93 days until the French Open starts (or something like that!)

Can it be now please?

Grand Slam Gal