Before the Open Era, Max Decugis won eight French Championships men’s singles titles. His victories came in 1903, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1912, 1913 and 1914.
Decugis was one of the leading French players of the early twentieth century, when the event was still called the French Championships and had restrictions on eligibility. His final pre-First World War title came in 1914; the tournament was not held from 1915 through 1919 because of the war.
The record is easy to confuse with Open Era achievements. René Lacoste, Henri Cochet and Jean Borotra were among the celebrated Four Musketeers, but none matched Decugis’s eight singles championships. Rafael Nadal later surpassed every historical men’s singles mark with 14 French Open titles in the Open Era.