Inside the iconic Roland Garros where every little detail is a cinematic spectacle

Hindustan Times

4 days ago

It takes less than 50 minutes to amble around Roland Garros and explore all its many parts and every single corner. The pace, even if a tick short of glacial, takes in the courts, big and small and can reach the smallest nooks and crannies. Like behind the Court Simonne Mathieu sunk into the earth and enveloped by botanical gardens is a patch of undulating lawn that has deck chairs, people napping under bushes next to a large screen and kids' activities. Where lost in his own rhythm is a DJ. Even with Chatrier at its craziest highest volume, there's parts of the 33 acres of the Roland Garros grounds which seem a world away from the moving parts of a global sports event.
Any first-timer can be swept away by the effortless understatement of it all.
Roland Garros' show courts -- the intimate Suzanne Langlen, the steel, glass and wood of Chatrier and the bijou Simonne Mathieu -- punctuate the landscape but they do not overwhelm it. There's activity, people rushing about, food and drink dished out, money being spent and earned but at Roland Garros, there always seems room to breathe. Roland Garros occupies the least space of any of the four Grand Slam venues but when it comes to court real estate, the Chatrier's surface is bigger than Australia's Rod Laver arena, Wimbledon's Centre Court and the US Open's Arthur Ashe stadium.
Wandering around the RG or up on the top-most floor of the Chatrier, there can suddenly be random sightings of the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is all tres tres Paris but there again, underneath the imagery and the optics lies a humdrum fact. Paris's most famous and overused symbol is still a working telecommunication and broadcast tower, its blinking red lights daily proof that it is relaying digital television and FM radio signals. During Roland Garros 2025, for the first time an experimental broadcast using 5G technology and tests for mobile smartphone reception were carried out of the Eiffel Tower. Well, like much around the French Open, it's more than just a pretty face.
Some facts will help us understand how this singular mashup of clockwork Grand Slam with a country fairground feel is managed. Roland Garros runs on millions of dollars of media rights and sponsorship deals. Sponsorships have crossed $100m, the TV rights deal is now three times what it was last year. There's currently a total of 18 very visible partners/ sponsors scattered everywhere. It has been reported that RG though is still looking for a cosmetics brand to be part of their portfolio, outside of the sunscreen of course.
Take a closer look of the TV pictures coming out of Roland Garros and note their originality. There is at key moments an almost cinematic quality to the images that punctuate the footage between the rallies, sets and games. The crowd framed by flowers, the view of the court from ground level next to the player's chair during changeovers, the camera finding its way into close-ups and slow motions of shoe sliding on clay. It is not just by chance. A UK production company called Whisper, working with 'some of the best tennis and sports directors in France and internationally' has taken over Roland Garros coverage this year from the previous producers Host Broadasting Services. A spokesperson said, 'Each Slam as its own identity including its look… and for Roland Garros it's important to cover the matches editorially and creatively… and capture the essence of the event.'
Since 2022, Roland Garros has used the phrase, 'Move the Lines, With Style' as its brand slogan. It's about shaking up conventions and reaching out, out of the box with the other element central to Paris: style. That slogan though is visible however not in French but in English.
With great elan, a Parisian explains 'This is not just a sports event.'
We were at a throng at a 'degustation' event in the narrow corridor outside the media cafe. Boutiques, wineries and epicurean entrepreneurs offer a selection of their wares to the international media a few times during the fortnight. The media are not central to the entrepreneurs' plans. But the visibility of the products inside RG is what is expected to create a ripple, move a needle to the entrepreneurs and business. 'There is wealth, affluence and influence inside these grounds.This is a Paris that you do not see altogether in such a small place. This is a Paris that is far removed from the tourist Paris or the suburban Grand Paris as well.' There's a suitably epicurean phrase for it that the world know and it is called, 'crème de la creme'. Journalist and author David Garcia notes that in these circles the French Open is not referred to as Roland Garros, but only as 'Roland'. Everything is on first-name basis.
Yet, a short walk from the 'degustation' are the smaller courts filled with juniors and the lure and crush of a sporting career. Around one corner between court 8 and Langlen, slumped and sweating against a wall is Hitesh Chauhan. He is junior world No. 83 from Ludhiana and has just lost a close second-round boys singles to the sixth seed Benjamin Willewerth, in a third set tiebreak. Hitesh was the last boy into the qualifying, whose final qualifying match was won 7-5 and put him into the 64-strong main draw, the lowest of the junior seeds. Inside two days, his Roland Garros stint is over. He must both deal with the lump of disappointment in his stomach and think how he could give junior Wimbledon qualifiers a shot.
For everything that is looks like and stands for, Roland Garros ever so often, can give players and spectators a gut-kick. Beneath the elan and the polish, at its core, Roland Garros or the French Open or Roland is sport. Of burning lungs, bruised knuckles and twisted hopes.