Every sport has great athletes. The most memorable moments of these sports, however, are created when a large collection of these athletes compete in the same era.

In tennis, no era produced as many quality names as the early 1980s. A film that will be played at the Wexner Center for the Arts highlights some of these names. “The French,” a documentary film produced by William Klein, documents the 1981 French Open.

The 130-minute film is more of a collection of raw footage than a typical documentary. It has no voiceover and mostly captures behind-the-scenes moments of tennis greats like Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Much of it is shot at times when the players have their guards down.

One moment shows Connors practicing before a match. As he is walking off the court, a young female fan asks for a kiss on the cheek and he bends down and obeys her wish.

The 1981 French Open marked the end of an era for one of the sports most popular players. It marked the last of Bjorn Borg’s 11 Grand Slam singles titles. Most of Klein’s documentaries are very observational and are shot like he is a fly on the wall, said Chris Stults, assistant curator of film and video at the Wexner Center.

The style in which he produced documentaries was very different to how he made his other films.

“His fiction films are almost always satire and really over the top,” Stults said. “They were usually more distrustful than his documentaries.”

Klein’s other sports documentaries were about Muhammed Ali. He produced “Cassius le grand” in 1964 and “Muhammed Ali, The Greatest” in 1969.

Despite producing a total of 19 films, Klein is primarily known as a photographer, Stults said. He spent most of his career photographing fashion.

“The French” will be at the Wexner Center Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. It is the final installment of a film series called “Players: Sports on Film.” The main sports exhibit, “Hard Targets” will remain open until April 11.

Tickets are available and can be purchased at the Wexner Center ticket office or by calling (614)292-3535.