Emile Lesieur offered the land for the new Roland Garros stadium on the condition that it be named after Roland Garros.
Lesieur was president of the Stade Français, which donated a roughly three-hectare plot at Porte d'Auteuil for the tennis complex. His naming condition honored his friend and former HEC Paris classmate Roland Garros, a pioneering aviator and World War I fighter pilot who had died in 1918.
The stadium was built after France's four famous “Musketeers”—René Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon—won the 1927 Davis Cup in Philadelphia. France needed a suitable venue for the 1928 challenge against the United States, so construction proceeded quickly and the new stadium opened in time.
Roland Garros was not a tennis champion, a common misconception caused by the tournament's fame. The venue hosted its first French Championships in 1928, and its central court was later renamed Court Philippe-Chatrier in 2001. The complex, however, retained the Roland-Garros name.