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I knew him as the President of the Assembly,
and I knew him as the Prime Minister,
but he wanted to play incognito.
Roland-Garros umpire from 1954 to 1988
His real name was Delmas,
and the second part of his name, Chaban, was added during the war.
As I'm a fan of anagrams, I mixed up his name,
so you might find him in the records as “Samled” or “Maldès”, etc.
When he became Prime Minister, I found another anagram for him –
“Perremi”, an anagram of “premier” (“prime”).
I also had to find a pseudonym for his partner,
because if I had put “Perremi – Pellizza”,
the truth would have been discovered, of course.
Still, that didn't stop journalists from phoning me –
they didn't care when Smith or Nastase was playing –
they kept asking me if the President of the Assembly or the Prime Minister
was taking part in the tournament this year.
Roland-Garros is not only the story of two players. It's a story that belongs to everyone.
I think he won the doubles 7 times with the same partner,
under different names.