Women are 'worthy' of French Open night sessions
French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has rejected accusations that not scheduling women's matches in the tournament's night session implies female players are not "worthy" of the slot.The first six night sessions at Roland Garros have all been men's singles matches.In a news conference earlier this week, two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur said the decision - which is debated every year - affects the growth of women's sport.Mauresmo, a former WTA world number one, says no women's players have complained directly to her about the situation.Asked if she understood that not picking women's matches led to some women feeling "not worthy", Mauresmo replied: "That's not what we're saying. I have to stop you right there."For me, the message that I always said, and I will repeat, is the conditions have not changed of having one unique match in the evening."The message has never been the girls are not worthy of playing at night. It's never been this."
Mauresmo still has to make a decision on which match will feature in Saturday's night session - which will clash with Paris St-Germain facing Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Munich."The Champions League final won't change much for us anyway," she said."We are trying to do the utmost for the tournament. We are very happy for PSG but we are organising our own event."There will be 15,000 people here so we want to give them the best possible match."
Why has the French Open not changed format?
The French Open night sessions - which were introduced in 2021 - feature just one singles match on Court Philippe Chatrier.A women's singles match, which are played over three sets, has not been put in this primetime slot since 2023 - meaning the past 19 night-time sessions have been men's singles matches, which are played over five sets.Only four matches have been from the women's draw since they were brought in four years ago.Questions are raised every year about whether the French Open should do more to promote the women's game.Mauresmo says women's matches potentially going "really fast" is the justification behind the choices."There is nothing new under the sun compared to the previous editions," she said."We have one single match per night session. It hasn't changed. We won't change everything again.""Two sets can go really fast when you have three sets minimum - that's the lens for me. "It's not the level the [women] reach right now. I'm not talking about this."Mauresmo also said the tournament does not want to have two matches in the night session, like the Australian Open and US Open, in fear of creating late finishes.She pointed to the full crowd at Thursday night's match between French favourite Gael Monfils and British number one Jack Draper.If we have two matches in the night sessions, it doesn't work in terms of how late the players are going to finish," she said."But if we start earlier, the stands are going to be empty in most of the first match, so we keep this one match in the evening." It's not ideal. We cannot check every box because we have many, many things to think when we are doing these choices."
Will there be any change?
Mauresmo became frustrated with the questions about the lack of women's night matches during Friday's news conference.After answering several question about the subject, she quickly shut down another one towards the end of the half-hour event, saying she wanted to "change the subject".Earlier Mauresmo attempted to move on from the issue by implying there would be some women's matches picked over the coming days."Maybe we talk about this on the last Sunday," she said.Mauresmo will be hoping the women's draw throws up some potential options for night matches."We have some rivalries which are interesting – Iga [Swiatek], Coco [Gauff], Aryna {Sabalenka], Madison [Keys]," she added."I think we are going through a very good era with interesting personalities and the level of play is very high. "The level is much higher than before. We have more of an equal footing that before."
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