Photo Gallery: Rendez-vous à Roland Garros, Boca Raton

Last week, the Boca West Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla. hosted the Rendez-vous à Roland-Garros, in partnership with Longines. This week, we'll take a closer look at what happened in South Florida, including profiles of the Paris-bound champions who will compete for a wild card into the junior Grand Slam, an examination of this worldwide event's rapid evolution and interviews with the players, professionals and personalities who help make this unique red-clay tournament happen.

BOCA RATON, Fla.—There was no shortage of photogenic subjects in South Florida during the fourth annual Rendez-vous à Roland-Garros, in partnership with Longines.

There remained plenty of green at the impeccably manicured Boca West Country Club, but its center court turned red for this unique junior event.

To mimic the major tournament as much as possible, the clay was the same kind used at Roland Garros, as were the Babolat tennis balls.

Floridian weather combined with a French atmosphere: Merci Boca. (Photo courtesy Roland Garros)

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The Paris connections didn’t stop there. There were mimes…

Baguettes…

French pastry…

And, of course, champagne.

While the club members noshed, Cori Gauff, who might have a French Open or two in her future, practiced before the Saturday final.

Victoria Flores, Gauff’s opponent and five years her senior, got her pre-match hitting beside an audience.

A microscopic view of the terre battue? Nope, it’s just mulch. But it was an fitting, brick-red color.

Slide marks on the clay come in all shapes and sizes. This streak came from a patron’s walker, rather than a player’s shoe.

The upset-filled Monte Carlo Masters played on the television in the background, but at Boca West, the focus was on the game’s next generation.

Gauff, just 13, was confident heading into her title match with Flores, having not dropped a set all week. That didn’t change after the final, which Gauff, winner of the Orange Bowl, largely dominated.

Longines, the elegant watchmaker and sponsor of Roland Garros, presented the Rendez-Vous a Roland-Garros in the United States for the first time.

“It’s been really fun,” Gauff said. “Boca West put on a great tournament. When I first walked in the first day I was like, Woah. Longines is the sponsor and everything is really nice.”

The actual French Open trophies were in the house.

Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, a former Roland Garros semifinalist and current Boca Raton resident, took in the tennis.

He then presented the boys’ winner’s trophy to Michael Heller, who also lives in Boca.

The trophies are one thing—the real reward was a trip to Paris, where Heller and Gauff will compete against the five other Rendez-vous a Roland-Garros winners from around the world for a spot in the junior French Open.

To the victors go the spoils—and a television crew, for an interview.