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Longines Ambassadress of Elegance Aishwarya Rai

Longines Ambassadors of Elegance visit the elegant world of tennis and the Longines booth at Roland Garros 2007 together with a number of showbusiness celebrities and tennis stars.

Longines was very proud to be the official partner and timekeeper of the French Open Roland Garros for the first time this year. During these two weeks, Longines welcomed its Ambassadors of Elegance Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan (from India), Aaron Kwok Fu Shen (from Hong Kong), Sara Malakul Lane (from Thailand), and Peter Lohmeyer (from Germany) in the elegant Longines booth at the French Open in Roland Garros. The Swiss watchmaking brand was also very happy to donate to the Little Dreams Foundation a cheque worth of 15,000 euros. This amount was raised during the tournament at the Longines GrandeVitesse corner, where visitors were able to test the speed of their service.

For its first tennis tournament as official partner and timekeeper of the French Open at Roland Garros, Longines was proud to welcome to its hospitality booth its Ambassadors of Elegance as well as visiting showbusiness celebrities (Vincent Perez, Vincent Lindon, Magloire), fashion designer Tillmann Lauterbach and well-known Japanese conductor Seigi Ozawa. The booth was also animated by the appearances of leading tennis players who came to greet the guests, including Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Timea Bacsinszky, Nikolay Davydenko, Novak Djokovic, Rainer Schüttler, Mats Wilander, Alex Corretja and Mahesh Bhupathi.

"This is my first live tennis tournament and I am delighted to be here with Longines", said Longines Ambassadress of Elegance Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, who had flown in especially at the beginning of the week before attending the International Indian Film Academy Awards in the UK. Similarly Aaron Kwok Fu Shen from Hong Kong was excited to rub shoulders with some Chinese tennis players as they prepared for their match, as well as to learn how to serve at the GrandeVitesse corner with female finalist Ana Ivanovic.

Money raised from this GrandeVitesse corner - 15,000 euros - was donated to the foundation Little Dreams, represented at Roland Garros by legendary tennis player Alex Corretja. At this area the public could time their service - the fastest this year being 227 km/h (the same as the fastest on-court serve this year which was made by Ivan Ljubicic. The Little Dreams Foundation aids talented youngsters to become the stars of tomorrow.

With its rich sporting heritage and elegant positioning, the Swiss brand Longines can certainly be said to have found its perfect match in Roland Garros in this its first year of collaboration with the French Open.