After Hu Bing took up tennis at 55,
Roland-Garros began to look
a little different.
During the recent Roland-Garros quarterfinals,
Hu Bing travelled to Paris to watch world-class
tennis unfold on the red clay.
From taking up tennis at 55 and launching a
“100 Days of Tennis” training challenge, to
stepping inside Roland-Garros, Hu Bing saw
more than one of the world’s great tournaments.
He found the power of shared passion—and the
focus, discipline and long-term commitment
that live beyond competition.
“Before, I watched a match for the score and
the result. Seeing one in person, I realised the
most compelling moments often live in the
details: the preparation before a serve, a subtle
adjustment in footwork, and the control of a
single landing point. Courtside, you feel how
exacting professional players are about detail.”
Roland-Garros is widely considered one of
tennis’s greatest tests of patience. Every point
on clay is the steady result of work accumulated
over time.
That feeling runs through all of Roland-Garros.
You sense the legacy of Rafael Nadal lifting the
Musketeers’ Cup fourteen times, and the pride
of seeing Li Na’s name on the champions’ wall.
Some come because they love the game; others
stay because that love endures.
What makes Roland-Garros special is how it
brings all of these people together.
It feels like one enormous community—people
of different ages, professions and countries,
gathered by the same passion to share stories
about tennis and about life beside the clay.
