His name is known throughout the world because he gave its name to the famous tennis tournament. However, few people really know the story of this pioneer in aviation and this hero of the First World War.
If Roland Garros is known throughout the world thanks to the tennis tournament that bears its name in Paris, it is not for its practice of this racket sport. In fact, he distinguished himself in many sports, football, rugby and cycling. Everywhere except in tennis… Born in Saint-Denis de la Réunion in 1888, Roland Garros especially excelled in another field: aviation. “It is for this reason that the so-called Garros has passed into posterity,” reports the official website of the French tennis tournament.
Who is the character Roland Garros?
First of all, he is a very young entrepreneur. At the age of 21, he bought a car dealership not far from the Arc de Triomphe, after leaving the HEC business school. But it was in 1909 that something clicked. He was invited by a friend to attend an air show and immediately fell in love with this discipline. As a true resourceful man, he immediately bought a device thanks to the profits from his automobile business, passed the patent and made his first solo flights.
Only four years later, he made the very first crossing of the Mediterranean Sea aboard a monoplane. It thus connects Saint-Raphaël in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia. This is the beginning of fame. But the arrival of the First World War will upset all his plans. He first enlisted as a simple soldier then as planes entered the conflict, Garros became the very first single-seater fighter in history, armed with a machine gun.
What is the history of Roland Garros?
He is in fact the first specialist to develop the fighter plane equipped with a firing device through the propeller field. Hit in 1915, he was taken prisoner by the Germans who did not hesitate to take up his invention. He would eventually escape three years later. This aviation enthusiast is heading back into the air. A passion that will be fatal to him. He was shot down on October 5, 1918, on the eve of his thirtieth birthday, above the Ardennes, at the cost of winning a fourth duel. “Victory belongs to the most stubborn,” he had written on the propeller of one of his planes.
Why did you give the name Roland Garros?
Ten years after the death of this war hero, his name was proposed to baptize the tennis stadium intended to serve as a showcase for the French Davis Cup team – then composed of the Four Musketeers – which should face the United States . This proposal comes from Emile Lesueur, a friend of Roland Garros met on the benches of HEC, president of Stade Français. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) accepts. The tribute to Garros does not stop there. The shape of the legendary stadium is a reference to the wings of an airplane. Likewise, its leitmotif, “victory belongs to the most stubborn” is written on the walls of the court.
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2024-03-31 16:00:00
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