PARIS — French Open event director Amelie Mauresmo says there are not any plans to vary the format for night time matches at Roland Garros however admitted the scenario is just not “excellent” as males’s singles matches dominate the prime-time slot on Courtroom Philippe-Chatrier.
Event organizers have come below criticism once more from gamers this yr over their scheduling at Roland Garros. The night time match slot — a individually ticketed occasion — has been solely males’s singles matches in 2025, following the pattern of earlier years. This has led to Ons Jabeur and Coco Gauff being amongst these questioning the scheduling.
French Tennis Federation president Gilles Moretton mentioned earlier this week it was a alternative “to place the higher match … for the spectators [at night].” And Mauresmo has doubled down, saying the choice over which match will get the night time slot is influenced by anticipated play time, with males enjoying best-of-five-set matches and ladies best-of-three.
“For the scheduling, night-session scheduling, nothing new below the solar as in comparison with the earlier editions,” Mauresmo mentioned Friday. “Now we have one single match per night time session. It hasn’t modified. Accordingly, we can’t change every part once more.
“The play time is also considered, potential play time, clearly as a result of we won’t plan forward, be it for girls’s tennis or males’s tennis. However we now have to take it into consideration the 15,000 spectators coming in for the night time session. Since males’s tennis is performed on the best-of-five units, three units will probably be performed at a minimal. It is difficult for us to do in any other case.”
Mauresmo added that this was not meant to point that the ladies had been “undeserving to play at night time.”
One suggestion, together with by Gauff, was to vary the night time slot to 2 matches, however Mauresmo has shut this down.
Three matches are performed on Chatrier for the day session — often with a girls’s singles match opening in entrance of barely full stands — after which one night time match. The choice for which match goes within the night time slot is determined between the FFT and broadcasters, whereas gamers additionally supply a choice.
“We determine to maintain the three matches within the day,” Mauresmo mentioned. “If you put these three matches, the straightforward means can be to have the 2 matches within the night. Then we would not have this dialog.
“However for my part, if we do not need to end too late, we can’t have the 5 matches within the day. … If we now have two matches within the night time classes, it would not work when it comes to how late the gamers are going to complete. That is my opinions.”
Mauresmo mentioned she understands the battle of the scenario.
“It is not excellent,” she mentioned. “We can’t verify each field as a result of we now have many, many issues to assume once we are doing these selections.”