Roland Garros and its courts are known for majestic tennis action in one of the four major tournaments, however, in 2024, these courts will host the Olympic tournament. And, as France prepares to host the 2024 Olympics, Sarens has been called into action, helping get the Suzanne Lenglen court ready for action.

The company has been hired to skid two major sections of the newly designed Suzanne Lenglen court roof into place. The Retractable roof is inspired by the pleated skirt Jean Patou designed for 1920s tennis star, and the court’s namesake, Suzanne Lenglen.

As part of this operation, performed on behalf of customer Renaudat Centre Constructions, 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.

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.