PARIS — Ons Jabeur closely criticized the choice from French Open organizers to once more prioritize males’s matches within the late-evening slot on Court docket Philippe-Chatrier.
The primary 4 days of the 2025 event have seen males’s matches scheduled within the slot, a individually ticketed session that begins at 8:15 p.m. native time.
For the reason that evening session was launched in 2022, simply two of its 33 matches have been girls’s singles. On the flip aspect, the primary match on Court docket Philippe-Chatrier is often performed in entrance of sparse crowds, and all 4 openers this yr have been girls’s singles.
Jabeur, who final yr stated gamers deserve “higher scheduling” after a number of matches went on past midnight, spoke after her first-round loss to Magdalena Frech on Tuesday, criticizing the choice to solely decide males’s matches for the evening session.
“It is nonetheless unhappy that we’re nonetheless seeing this,” Jabeur stated. “I hold standing by my phrases.
“In Europe, normally, it is unlucky for girls’s sports activities normally. Not for tennis however for normally. I hope whoever is making the choice, I do not suppose they’ve daughters as a result of I do not suppose they need to deal with their daughters like this.
“, it’s kind of ironic. They do not present girls’s sport, they do not present girls’s tennis, after which they ask the query, ‘Yeah, however principally they watch males.’ After all they watch males extra since you present males extra. All the pieces goes collectively.
“It is a disgrace from the federation, a disgrace from the Prime, no matter known as the TV, that they made such a contract like this. Quite a lot of nice gamers, they should be there. One of many matches was Naomi [Osaka] and Paula [Badosa]. Such an unbelievable match. They have been imagined to be there. Like final yr, Iga [Swiatek] and Naomi was imagined to be there. Quite a lot of nice matches, they need to have been there.”
Jabeur’s criticism comes a day after French tennis federation president Gilles Moretton prompt the choice on evening matches was geared towards followers.
“The schedule is one key level on the event,” Moretton stated. “Generally now we have to consider what may very well be higher for spectators. That is why generally now we have to make some selections.”
Jabeur stated to that: “I am unsure what sort of followers he is speaking about. I do know I am a fan. I’ll watch that match.”