ROLAND GARROS MAY FLY AGAIN

PARIS: Stars of tennis, politics and music have been trading shots in a tense contest over whether to relocate the French Open, amid complaints that expanding the Paris home of the tournament would disfigure a botanical garden built under Louis XV.

Rafael Nadal, the world's best tennis player and the French Open champion, is among those opposing the move.

The French Tennis Federation is due today to decide the fate of Roland Garros as the venue of the tournament from 2016.

The federation must rule whether to renovate and expand the existing site in Paris's chic 16th arrondissement or move the competition to one of three venues in the suburbs.

The options are next to the Palace of Versailles, Marne-la-Vallee (the home to Disneyland Paris) or Gonesse, near Le Bourget airport.

There is general acceptance that Roland Garros needs a spring clean and more space. At 8.5 hectares it is the smallest of the four grand slam venues and less than half Wimbledon's size.

Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, has proposed building a retractable roof over the main stadium and adding a 5000-seater court in the adjacent botanical gardens, les Serres d'Auteuil.

This has prompted resistance from people who say it will encroach on the gardens, built in 1761. More than 35,000 have signed an online petition against it and their cause has been taken up by Francoise Hardy, a 1960s pop singer. ''We fear a building project like this will de-nature and disfigure this site,'' she wrote in the newspaper Le Monde.

Delanoe has claimed the gardens would be respected, that only modern greenhouses would be demolished and would be replaced by more tasteful ones, and that ''not one leaf will be damaged''.

His plan, seen as narrow favourite among the 180 national federation delegates, has received the backing of a special commission of elected officials, architects and historians.

Francois de Mazieres, the mayor of Versailles, has accused Paris's town hall of foul play for releasing a report calling his project ''unfeasible'' as it would blight the view from the nearby palace and gardens.

The other two sites have been described as ''at the end of the world'' and ''lacking glamour''. However, they would allow the tennis federation to own its site instead of paying a long-term lease.

Reports suggest that Paris and Versailles will be chosen as preferred bidders, heralding a run-off that could last up to three months.

Past and present stars have voiced their dismay at the proposed move. The Frenchman Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983, said it would be a slur on the memory of the ''musketeers'' - the four Frenchmen whose Davis Cup victory over the US in 1927 inspired the building of Roland Garros stadium.

Nadal, the world's No.1 player, said last year: ''It's very important, whereas if we move elsewhere, maybe the site is going to be bigger, we're going to lose part of our soul''.

Nadal's long-time rival, Roger Federer, called for change without taking sides. ''Roland Garros is the most cramped of all the grand slams,'' he said. ''The players and the fans feel that even if it's quite a nice experience, it's quite tough to live in every day.''

Telegraph, London