The famous Roland Garros stadium is home to the French Open and has hosted spectacular matches and legendary tennis players over the years. As France prepares for the upcoming 2024 Olympics, the Suzanne Lenglen court is being fitted with a modern retractable roof inspired by the pleated skirt Jean Patou designed for 1920s tennis star, and the court’s namesake, Suzanne Lenglen.

Sarens is proud to be part of this fantastic modern upgrade to an iconic court, and was on site from September 2022 through February 2023 to skid two major roof sections in place on behalf of customer Renaudat Centre Constructions. 

As part of this operation, the six-person Sarens team skidded two 480T roof sections 28 metres over the tennis stadium, jacking them down on their final supports. The support towers could only stand at particular places around the tennis court, so the crew had to provide four modular beams with a total length of 36 metres each. 

One of the most pivotal challenges presented by the project was that one roof section had to be built higher than the other due to the presence of an existing building. Because of this, Sarens’ jacking towers on top of the beams had to be 3,25m high–a challenge for the stability of the entire structure.

In total, the equipment Sarens deployed for this successful operation included: 

• 4 support towers
• 4 modular beams
• 4 skidding systems on top of the beams
• 8 CS250 jacking systems on top of the beams

All of the equipment was mobilised via 28 trucks from Sarens headquarters in Wolvertem. It took two weeks to set up all the towers and beams, and another two weeks of skidding and jacking operations once the roof sections had been built by the client. 

We invite you to watch a video of this spectacular feat of engineering and celebrate the new face of an iconic court with us as we look forward to the 2024 Olympic Games!