French Open night session snub not about quality of women's tennis, says Amélie Mauresmo

New York Times

a day ago

Amélie Mauresmo, the former world No. 1 who is the tournament director for the French Open, has rejected suggestions that the lack of women's matches in the Roland Garros night session tells WTA Tour players that they are not worthy of the event's primetime slot.
In a confrontational news conference, Mauresmo insisted that scheduling four women's matches out of 44 on Court Philippe-Chatrier since 2021 was not a judgment about the value and quality of women's tennis.
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'It has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night,' Mauresmo said. 'It's never been this, and I will not accept that you carry this message.'
Mauresmo said that the French territory television contract with Amazon Prime stipulates there being only one match in the night session. She then repeated another message of the past few years: that the potential length of the match is what matters. A three-set match could be over in two; a five-set match guarantees at least three.
'It's the length of the matches, not the level they reach,' Mauresmo said.
Earlier in the week, French Tennis Federation (FFT) president Gilles Moretton said that scheduling decisions are based on 'what is better for spectators.'
Mauresmo said no female player has raised the issue directly with her, but her comments followed Coco Gauff, the world No. 2, and Ons Jabeur, the three-time Grand Slam finalist, discussing the importance of giving women the chance to showcase their talents in front of the widest possible audience.
'It's still sad that we are still seeing this,' Jabeur said in a news conference. 'I keep standing by my words. In Europe, in general, it's unfortunate for women's sports. Not for tennis but for in general. I hope whoever is making the decision, I don't think they have daughters, because I don't think they want to treat their daughters like this.'
'I do think that women's matches are worthy of a night spot,' said Gauff, who often plays at night at the U.S. Open in front of some 24,000 people at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
She said French Open organizers could solve the problem by starting earlier and having two matches at night rather than one, as both the U.S. and Australian Opens do, as well as other top mixed tournaments.
'From my experience playing at US Open, night match at 7 p.m. with Novak (Djokovic) following me, and he's the greatest player of all time, people were almost just as excited to see me play as him,' Gauff said.
Jabeur also noted the circularity and the self-fulfilling outcome of having limited women's matches in the best slots.
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'They don't show women's sport, they don't show women's tennis. Of course they watch men more because you show men more. Everything goes together. It's a shame from the Federation, a shame from the Prime,' she said.
She noted how Naomi Osaka and Paula Badosa had played an epic three-set match that lasted nearly two and half hours in the first round, a duel between two high-profile players that could have carried a night session. Osaka played a similar match in the second round last year against Iga Świątek. Both matches took place in the day session, but Osaka's encounter with the four-time champion went on so long that it was getting dark when they were done.
'A lot of great matches, they should have been there,' Jabeur said.
Mauresmo told reporters to 'ask her on Sunday' about the topic, and a French reporter suggested putting the all-French encounter between wild cards Lois Boisson and Elsa Jacquemot in the slot Saturday, during the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter.
She said that the night sessions are sold out to Chatrier's capacity of 15,000, with the seats filled from early in the first set. She suggested that would not be the case if the session started earlier with a women's match, partly because of French work schedules. That is rarely an issue in Melbourne and New York, with spectators who have paid serious money for prime tickets not wanting to miss out.
Ken Solomon, the former chief executive of the Tennis Channel, which used to be the U.S. broadcaster of the tournament, said he had raised the issue during his tenure. In part, that was to see if high-profile Americans like Gauff might play at night because it is the afternoon in the U.S., even if that meant scheduling two women's matches for the night session. Solomon said that there was no interest in doing that from either the WTA Tour or the tournament.
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Like every other broadcaster, TNT, the current U.S. broadcaster makes suggestions and expresses preferences but ultimately the French Tennis Federation (FFT) makes the final call. The last time women played at night on Philippe-Chatrier was in 2023, when current world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka played Sloane Stephens in the quarterfinals.
Asked whether she personally had an issue with the decision to schedule exclusively men at night since then, Mauresmo declined to answer.
'I would like to change the subject,' she said.
(Top photo of Amélie Mauresmo: Antonio Borga / Eurasia Sport Images via Getty Images)