Coco Gauff Says French Open Must ‘Improve' Scheduling For Women's Matches

Forbes

4 days ago

Coco Gauff would like to see the French Open 'improve' its scheduling by adding women's night matches.
Last year, all 11 night matches – which begin at 8:15 p.m. and are ticketed separately – featured men's matches, and so far this year all the night matches have involved men.
The last women's singles match featured in prime time came in 2023, and there have been only four since night sessions began in 2021.
'I talked about this a few days ago, and to be honest, I didn't really have all the facts about the situation," Gauff said following her second-round victory over Tereza Valentova, 6-2, 6-4. 'I do think that women's matches are worthy of a night spot.'
Unlike the U.S. Open and Australian Open, which both feature two night matches (one men's and one women's), Roland Garros features only one prime time match. Gauff said she doesn't feel women's night matches should be scheduled after the men.
'And I think, to be honest, if there were gonna be two spots [in Paris], I don't think that a woman should play after the men at 8:15,' she said. "I just think that's unfair. Because you could go on at 11:00. And that's if the match really goes fast. I think there is opportunity to put the match earlier at like 7:00.. like most tournaments do the 2 night slots. I think if they're gonna put one match at 8:15, there for sure could be opportunity to put a woman there. And if they're gonna put two slots and the first match is starting at 8:15, I don't think a woman's match should be play after a men's match. I don't think people should be going on at 11:00 or 12:00 to be honest.
"I definitely do agree with Ons. When you feel, like, what's best for the fans.. but I feel like we produce some high quality tennis and we have some great stars on the women's sides that fans would love to see. From my experience playing at U.S. Open, night match at 7:00 pm, 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. And same as other places I've played like Australia, night match, people were excited to see too. So I definitely think there's opportunity to improve that in the future with this tournament.'
Ons Jabeur previously criticized French Open officials for not scheduling any women's night matches, calling it 'sad.'
"It's still sad that we are still seeing this," Jabeur said. "I keep standing by my words.
"In Europe, in general, it's unfortunate for women's sports in general. 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.
"You know, it's a bit ironic. They don't show women's sport, they don't show women's tennis, and then they ask the question, 'Yeah, but mostly they watch men.' 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, whatever called the TV, that they made such a contract like this. A lot of great players, they deserve to be there. One of the matches was Naomi [Osaka]